To Another World
by Cheria
Summary: Ayanokouji Ryuuki was a normal high school student, except for the fact that he has a strange tattoo and that he can feel the emotions of others around him. One day, during a school trip, he and the other students get sucked in and wake up in Tellius...
1. Chapter 1

**The Ruins of Beginnings**

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem. This is written by Arcaile63.  
**_

It was a fine, glorious sunny day. The kind of weather that makes you want to forget everything and just mingle relaxingly with nature. Alas, for a group of dejected high school students, this kind of weather merely made their already miserable, boring day even more unbearable.

"Aaaaargh... when can we get out of this place?" A young man with messy blonde hair and green eyes groaned as he and his friend headed to their usual spot for lunch.

"Relax Lloyd, the school year is almost done with anyway," another youth, this one with sleek black hair tied into a ponytail and hazel eyes, replied.

"Tch, yeah, and we have finals to worry about. Then again, it won't be a problem for you, huh, Ryu?"

"Are you talking about me?" a female voice asked from behind the pair. They turned around to find a girl, also sporting hazel eyes and a lighter shade of black hair that came half-way towards her waist, and bearing strong resemblance to 'Ryu'.

"Oh, hey sis," the black-haired youth greeted casually.

"Gah, I swear, why do you two have to have such similar names, it gets annoying! What's with 'Ryuuki' and 'Ryuuri', huh? Honestly." Lloyd looked as if he was suffering from a major headache.

"Um... did something happen to him, onii-chan?" Ryuuri asked her older brother, to which he shook his head and replied with a bemused grin.

"He's been like this ever since finals were announced".

The younger sister gave a knowing "oh". Her brother's friend always got fairly agitated whenever a major school project or exam came up.

The three made their way towards the table beneath a tree that was in the corner of the quad, the "usual spot" for Ryuuki and Lloyd. Ryuuri left the group to join her own friends for lunch break. Soon after, the two friends were joined by the third and fourth members of their little group, a tall boy with short reddish-hair and blue eyes, and a girl with shoulder-length brown hair and dark brown eyes.

"Hey, Felix, Eudice, how's it going?" Lloyd greeted his buddies, albeit somewhat dispiritedly.

"What's wrong Lloyd?" Eudice asked as she sat down on the bench next to Felix.

"Let me guess, you got rejected by some girl?" Felix chuckled jokingly, earning himself a glare from Lloyd.

"Ha ha, very funny".

"Hey, I was just kidding". Ryuuki and Eudice had to try quite hard to suppress a laugh.

The four juniors took out their lunches and began to eat. Eudice and Ryuuki pulled out their home-made lunchboxes, whereas Felix and Lloyd settled in with the school food. As they ate, they chatted about trivial things, Felix going on about his new 100 meter dash record, Lloyd blabbering something about mechanics and electrical systems he was working on, Eudice sternly reprimanding them for some prank they pulled recently. As usual, Ryuuki simply listened to the casual talk, absent-mindedly twirling a bit of his hair to the side with his finger.

"Just a little more until we're out of this place!" Felix cried joyfully as he took a bite from his pizza.

"Let's hope you can keep your paws off the cheerleading team until then," Eudice said as she pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"Ouch," Lloyd snickered, while Ryuuki grinned bemusedly.

Suddenly, Felix nodded his chin towards somewhere behind Ryuuki. The others followed his gaze and finally stopped at a girl on the other side of the campus. She had dirty blonde hair that was kept out of her face with a maroon head band, although she had her left eye covered with a bang, and also made her hair point upwards in the back with a hair clip. She was leaning against the wall of the gym with her arms crossed, and for some reason the other students were making it a point to take the long way around in order to avoid her.

"Hey, isn't that Kiara?"

"Kiara?" Ryuuki asked, turning to Felix.

"You know, that delinquent girl. She even scares the entire staff and faculty half to death. What's she doing here? She almost never comes to school."

"A delinquent, huh?" Ryuuki said. She did have a rather intimidating scowl on her face. If she could only loosen that seemingly perpetual frown, she might actually look quite pretty. Alas, at the moment people were picking up their pace whenever they got near her, terrified that she might suddenly lash at their throats like a venomous viper.

"Speaking of unusualness, look who's also here," Eudice directed their attentions towards the opposite end of the campus from Kiara. There stood a rather ill-looking young man with short, well-groomed brown hair and amber eyes. Accompanying him was a very pretty girl with waist length black hair with streaks of blonde and sapphire blue eyes. Or rather, it looked more like she was trying to make sure he doesn't fall over. The guy looked like he was ready to collapse any minute now.

"That's Willis and Liliana…" Ryuuki said as he located the two.

"Yup, there's another guy who rarely shows up. Did he get any better?" Felix mused just as Willis slightly staggered in his steps, "Apparently not..."

"Guess it doesn't matter much if you come from a rich family when it comes to illness," Eudice said concernedly, "I heard that his entire family was killed by the disea-"

She was cut off by a sharp nudge from Felix, who was cautiously eyeing Ryuuki, whose normally bright hazel eyes had a look of empty hollowness to them.

"Oh, sorry Ryu".

"It's alright, don't worry about it," Ryuuki answered with a somewhat strained smile. His entire family, nay, his entire bloodline no longer existed. His parents, his grandparents, his uncles, his aunts, his cousins, his distant-cousins, they all died young from a mysterious illness that seemed to haunt the entire family. The only ones left of his bloodline was himself and his sister, which was why he tended to be very overprotective of her. Currently, they were living with a family friend, a generous, wealthy old lady who had been close to their mother. That was why the siblings had transferred to this school district in the first place.

The uneasy silence was thankfully broken by the bell signaling the end of lunch break.

"All righty, physics' next, gotta fly!" Lloyd quite literally bolted from his seat... and left behind his back pack as usual.

Eudice sighed as she grabbed the abandoned bag and started after the science nerd. She was in the same physics class as him, so she ended up having to deliver his bag almost everyday. One would think that after almost two years of constant scolding from her, Lloyd would finally get over his bad habit. No such luck.

"Well, it's off to history for me," Felix said as he slung his bag over his shoulder.

"Alright, see you later," Ryuuki grabbed his own bag and went the other direction to his advanced government class.

* * *

"We're home granny!" Ryuuri chirped as the two siblings entered a modest house. Their foster grandmother of sorts may be pretty wealthy, but she was quite frugal as well. That is, except when it came to the two of them. She absolutely adored children, the black haired siblings especially, due to her having been friend of their mother. As a result, she never missed a chance to spoil them as much as she could. Of course, Ryuuki worked hard to make sure that DIDN'T happen. He hated to impose on the old lady, no matter how generous she might be. His sister had enough common sense as well, and made sure not to step out of line. Alas, Ryuuki himself didn't manage to do a very good job of not spoiling his only remaining family either, so the little girl couldn't help slipping everything now and then.

"Ahhh, welcome back, how was school?" came the reply from a genial looking elderly woman. She was well into her 60's, yet somehow she maintained an enthusiasm that could match the little girl that she had taken in under her roof.

"Oh, nothing much, same as usual," the little girl answered cheerfully. She was in an unusually good mood for some reason today, as she hummed and skipped as she made her way to her room to drop off her things. Ryuuki gave his greetings to the old lady and went to drop off his school things as well, and then got ready for his part-time job at a local cafe, a fairly large one. Feeling that he could not always impose on the old lady all the time, he had acquired the job last year. Of course, the old lady insisted that he didn't have to worry about it, but Ryuuki was equally persistent, and at length she gave in.

He started to change into his uniform, but stopped abruptly as he took off his shirt. Stepping in front of the mirror, he looked into his reflection. Right there, next to his right bicep, was a strange red marking. It resembled the Greek letter omega (Ω), with a single line dissecting it in the middle. He had had it for as long as he could remember. His sister also had one slightly below the nape of her neck as well, although hers was pale green and looked like a rather elaborate spiral triskele. By looking carefully when her hair isn't covering it, one could make out two round tips of the marking right above the collar of her shirt. Ryuuki had no idea what these markings meant. He remembered that his mother sported a marking of her own, an intricate blue crescent moon, on the back of her hand, but that was about it. For some unexplained reason, he felt a kind of reluctance to show this mark to outsiders, so he always had it wrapped up in a bandage in order to conceal it. He often feared that these markings may have something to do with the nightmare that had befallen his family... no, he swore not to think of such things ever again. He still had Ryuuri, and he was not about to let some perverse whim of fate take her away from him as well. That was all that mattered. Mentally berating himself, Ryuuki quickly finished changing and left his room. The distance to the cafe wasn't too far, but it still took about 20 minutes of walking. He didn't want to be late. Not that it would matter much, since his boss was happy with him just being there at all. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the number of customers, particularly the young females, nearly tripled since Ryuuki began working there.

Ryuuki was still trying to clear his mind from the symbols when he turned a corner around the street. For some reason, the symbols were bothering him more today than ever before. He felt like he missed something important back in his room just now. Unfortunately, he was so caught up in his own thoughts that he failed to notice the other person coming around that corner as well. The end result: bump.

"S-sorry" Ryuuki stuttered as he snapped out of his daze. He held out a hand to help the person up, who had fallen down from the small crash. It took him a second to realize that she was someone he knew.

"No, I should apologize, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going," the girl with long blonde-streaked black hair said with an embarrassed smile as she took his hand. "It's rare to see you without your sister, Ryuuki."

"I'm off to work right now, so she's back at home," Ryuuki returned the smile as he pulled the girl up. "Speaking of rare, what are you doing around here Liliana? Your house is in the other direction from school, right?"

Liliana's face darkened slightly, her face was cast down and Ryuuki saw her eyes darting side to side, as if checking for any onlookers. "Actually, I... I wanted to speak with you, Ryuuki," she said in a barely audible whisper.

Ryuuki was disturbed. He had known the rich young lady for a long time, having befriended her by sheer chance long before he even moved to this town. In all these years, he had never seen her so troubled before. He glanced at his watch. He had roughly 10 minutes to spare, since he always left early when going somewhere, just to be safe. Then again, even if he was late, his boss really wouldn't mind much.

"Oh, but you're busy now, aren't you? I'll just come again some other time."

"No, no, it's alright. So, what did you want to talk about?" Liliana looked uncertain for a moment, then suddenly grabbed him by the arm and quickly walked away. Now Ryuuki was even more alarmed. He had never seen Liliana so worried and rushed before. She was always calm and refined.

She led him to a nearby park. Actually, it was nothing more than a small sandbox with a slide and a pair of swings. Ever since the new big, fancy park was built near the center of the town, this one became pretty much forgotten. Still, Ryuuki was familiar with the place, since he often visited here during his frequent night walks. He liked the peace and quiet it offered.

Liliana once again looked around to make sure no one else was in the vicinity. Seeing that the place was devoid of any human being, save for the two of them, she let out a small breath of relief. Then she noted that she had been holding Ryuuki's hand the whole time. Blushing slightly, she quickly released her grip. Ryuuki couldn't help but grin slightly. Though she was from a high class family, her occasional moments of boldness like this never ceased to amuse him.

"So? What's the problem?" he asked, partly in order to break the awkward silence that had befallen the park.

Liliana fidgeted for a while, then cautiously opened her mouth, her gaze fully locked onto the boy in front of her. Is that fear Ryuuki detected in her eyes? For a long time Ryuuki had gotten the feeling that he could almost "sense" what other people, and other objects such as trees, are thinking. It had become stronger as of recent. His sister had confided to him that she felt such a connection with the world around her as well.

"Ummm… Ryuuki, do you remember when we first met?"

Ryuuki was taken aback. After all that apparent dilemma, that was the LAST thing he thought she would bring up. He frowned as he struggled to make sense of what she just said. It was probably during a summer vacation about 8 or 9 years ago, shortly before he and Ryuuri had to move in with Granny. He and Ryuuri were having a little swimming competition (a bit one-sided really, but Ryuuki often lost on purpose) while their parents and Granny were barbecuing. By sheer chance he had found Liliana almost half-drowned in the sea. It turned out that she had fallen off her family yacht while trying to catch a passing seagull. Nobody had been keeping an eye on her, so her entire family (particularly the father) was in a state of panic when they couldn't find her. When they at last found her with the Ayanokouji family, they were beside themselves with gratitude (to the point where they even offered an entire personal island resort as a gift… Of course, Ryuuki's family turned it down.).

For the life of him, Ryuuki could not think of what significance that event should bring about now.

"Yes, that time at the beach, right? What about it?"

"… your right arm, you had a mark, right?"

Ryuuki froze at this. How did she know about the mark? Now that he thought about it, he had not covered his mark with a bandage like he used to that time. There seemed to be no reason to do so, since he was with his family only (Granny counts as a family, for all purposes). She must have caught a glimpse of it back then.

"Yes, but what does that have to-" Ryuuki nearly jumped as Liliana started unbuttoning the top of her blouse. "Wai, wha, what are you-"

Liliana placed one finger on his lips to hush him up. It took Ryuuki all the self-restraint he could muster to stay calm in this awkward situation. Making sure that Ryuuki was not about to let out another outburst, the girl carefully undid a few more buttons. When she stopped, her face completely red with embarrassment, Ryuuki was utterly speechless. Slightly over the center of her chest, there was a light blue mark shaped like Ж.

"That's… a mark" was all he could say.

"Yes…" Liliana replied quietly, "I can't tell this to my parents, they might do something drastic, you know how they are. You were the only one I could think of, because I remembered that you had one too back then. It, it's been growing more distinct these past few days.

At her words Ryuuki's eyes widened. He immediately fumbled over his cuff button, then pulled back the long sleeve. Now he knew what had been bothering him earlier in his room. The red marking was too distinct. For the last seventeen years, the mark had been quite faded. Clearly visible, but nevertheless somewhat like faded paint. Right now, however, the mark was as bright and clear as if it was freshly tattooed onto his arm.

"And then there's this…" Ryuuki gave her an apprehensive look as she picked up a stray leaf on the ground. She closed her eyes, and at that moment Ryuuki felt a strange tingling sensation. A white-blue aura danced around her hand with the leaf, then the leaf was encased in a thick layer of ice.

"… I have had this ability since I was a child, but it's never been this strong, not since the mark grew distinct," Liliana explained, her voice wavering, "I don't know what's happening to me, I, I'm _frightened_, Ryuuki."

Ryuuki did not reply immediately. It started to make sense. If Liliana was indeed affected by a mark just as he and Ryuuri were, and that seemed quite likely by this point, it would explain one other thing that had been nagging at him. The voices were growing louder and clearer. Before, he could only "feel" what plants and animals were feeling, even natural landscapes such as rivers. Recently, however, he could actually "hear" what these entities were feeling, or perhaps even thinking. He glanced back at his own mark. It was clear that the clarity of the mark had something to do with the apparent increase in their strange powers. What this signified, however, Ryuuki could not tell.

Drawing a deep breath to calm himself, Ryuuki said, "Honestly, I have no idea what's going on, either. In fact, if you hadn't told me about it, I would not have noticed the mark's clarity…" he thought for a bit and continued, "I'll have a talk with my sister. I can't promise anything, but perhaps we can come up with some idea. Until then…" He placed one arm firmly on her shoulder, "Do not show your mark or powers to anyone else, not even your family if you can help it, all right?"

_(Few weeks later)_

"YEAH! This is gonna be awesome!" Felix whooped as he slung his bulging bag over his shoulder.

"Mr. O'Connor! Please behave in a manner befitting a student of our school, for ONCE in your life!"

"Aye, aye, Mr. Lewis," the moment the history teacher turned his back, Felix added, "... and Clark."

The finals were over at last, and the students were about to embark on their joyous end of the year field trip. Mr. Lewis, the school's world history teacher, and Miss. Waylen, the biology and chemistry teacher, had managed to obtain permission to visit some newly discovered ruins (courtesy of Mr. Lewis's friends who, well, owed him a few favors). If anything, the two teachers, well-known ruins fanatics, seemed even more excited than the students.

"Okay everyone, the bus will leave in exactly 15 minutes, so get into your groups, finish whatever you need to do, and get on a bus, chop chop!" Miss. Waylen announced a bit too cheerfully.

Since the participation in the trip was voluntary, students of all different grade levels had shown up on that day. Felix had wandered off a tad too close to a group of junior girls, before getting a chunk of flesh beneath his neck grabbed by Eudice and dragged off. Since groups needed to be formed within the same grade level, Felix, Eudice, Ryuuki, and Lloyd had already formed a group. Ryuuri was nowhere to be seen, much to Ryuuki's concern.

"Come on, Ryu, she's bound to be there when we arrive, you're driving us nuts with that fidgeting," Eudice sighed exasperatedly.

"Sorry," however, Ryuuki could not help but constantly shift his eyes left and right. If he had one major character flaw, it would be his overprotective behavior towards his sister. If it were not for the fact that all grade levels could participate in this trip, he would not have gone in the first place in order to keep an eye on the sophomores, specifically Ryuuri.

"I'm not bothering everyone, am I?" a voice asked from the side.

"Nah, more the merrier in a trip like this. Still, I can't understand why you would want to hang out with us, Liliana," Eudice answered with a smile.

"Oh, I know why… hehe…" Felix snickered with a sly grin plastered all over his face, prompting Eudice to raise an eyebrow, "Sooooo, Liliana, mind telling us how it went?"

"Pardon?" Liliana asked in confusion.

"Oh, you don't need to be shy, it's all part of being human, you know. Sooo, how'd it go in the park? Shame I had to leave right then and there, but I thought your first should be by yourselves, you know?" Nobody seemed to be understanding a word coming out of his mouth, save for Eudice, who presently had a suspicious scowl on her face.

"Umm… I'm afraid I have no idea what you're referring to."

"Aww, come on, you and Ryu were really getting into it!" This, at least, snapped Ryuuki out of his single-minded browsing of the crowd.

"Hmmm? You called?" Ryuuki asked, having missed the entire conversation until he heard his name. Liliana, on the other hand, recalled the incident back at the park a few weeks back, particularly the part involving her blouse. Instantly, her face turned into a brilliant shade of scarlet.

"N-no! That's not what happened! That was-" Liliana was cut off as Eudice caught Felix's face in one hand, and began to crush it.

"ARGH! I give! I give!" Felix floundered as he tried to pry off the fingers strengthened by years of archery.

"Next time, keep your mouth zipped…" Eudice spoke slowly in a quiet, deadly tone as she unceremoniously dropped him, allowing his form to crumple into a pitiful lump.

"Yes ma'am…"

"Did I… miss something?" Ryuuki asked, still completely oblivious as to what they had been talking about.

"You don't need to know," Eudice replied, then muttered to herself, "for Liliana's sake".

The ruins were unlike anything Ryuuki had ever seen. And that was saying something, considering how Ryuuki had studied a vast amount of archaeological records for one of his old history research paper. It resembled a small courtyard, with a single spire jutting out from the center. However, the actual ruins were much larger than the ones visible on the surface, since there existed a cavernous underground complex. Each of the teachers took their charge of students down through the numerous stairways, towards the heart of the structure.

"Jeez, this place sure gives me the creeps," Lloyd muttered as he examined the pictures on the wall they were passing by, "and what's up with this? It's like humans turning into animals! What is this, some sort of shrine for werewolves?"

Ryuuki took a closer look at the picture, then quickly glanced around the hallway. "I'm not sure what civilization this belongs to. Logically, you'd think it was a Native American ruins, since, well, it's IN America. But these markings and drawings, not to mention the architecture and the overall layout of the structures don't resemble any of the tribes I can recall. This is nothing like the Aztecs, or the Mayans, not even the Incans".

"Okay, that's great Ryu, now could you put that in plain English please?"

"Basically, Felix, God knows who made these things," Eudice retorted.

"… she's still mad at me, isn't she?" Felix whispered to Lloyd, who solemnly nodded.

"And we're HERE!" the students and teachers jumped as Mr. and Miss. ruins-lovers exclaimed in what can be best described as a glee displayed by 7 year old child with a new toy.

"Look at this, this sculpture! I DO wonder what tools and techniques they…" All other subsequent ramblings were soon tuned out by the rest of the tourists.

"He needs to chill, badly," Felix muttered as he adjusted his bag that had fallen off of his shoulder from the jump.

Eventually, the students ended up migrating towards their friends and scattering all over the place. The ruins were still being excavated, but this section had been cleared and quarantined, and the archaeologists had guaranteed perfect safety, which enabled the students to roam at will.

Felix and Eudice, having been appointed medical officers of their group (the students under Mr. Lewis) had run off in order to support the frail Willis, who had just collapsed out of exhaustion from all the walking. Ryuuri was still nowhere to be seen, though Eudice managed to convince Ryuuki that his sister is probably just hanging out with her own friends. So, for the meanwhile, Ryuuki took his time examining the room they were all in. The walls were filled with more of the drawings of morphing humans, along with a great big mural depicting some sort of a flood. In the middle of the room was a large pedestal, featuring 4 differently shaped and colored orbs facing inward, where two larger spheres rested in the center.

"This mural… perhaps it depicts the flood in the bible?" Ryuuki was startled by the sudden voice, and turned to find Liliana and Lloyd looking curiously up at the mural.

"I don't think so. For one thing, there's no ark in it, and I'm pretty certain that these ruins were here way before the first Europeans came over to this continent. I'd say they date around a millennium or so, give or take a few centuries," Ryuuki explained as he swept a finger across the stone wall. Suddenly there was a bump, a clatter, and Lloyd began fumbling around.

"Crap, dropped my glasses! That damn brat of a sophomore, or freshman, or whatever he is!"

Ryuuki chuckled quietly, then noticed something on the floor. He knelt down and brushed off a layer of dust that had accumulated on the ground. The more he dusted away, the more drawings he uncovered. Intrigued, he began sweeping out a large circle, which revealed what looked to be a map of some sort. Then Ryuuki frowned. He had had a funny feeling when he first entered this .lace. He wasn't sure what to call it. Nostalgic, perhaps? Which was absurd, as he had definitely never been in here before. But what really bothered him was the fact that he could READ the strange letterings he had found on the pictures on the wall and the symbols on the floor. Not completely, nor did the sentence structure really make much sense to him, but he did recognize a few words that said "Beorc, Laguz, Ashera, and just now on the floor, Crimea." Of course, the meaning behind these words were totally lost on him. Without any source of reference to the culture of the civilization behind these ruins, these words were nothing more than jibberish. Trying his best to ignore the uneasy feeling that had begun to grow, he stood up and took a better look around the room.

"Strange, it's getting harder to breathe in here…"

"Now that you mention it, it is getting quite uncomfortable," Liliana replied, looking just as concerned as Ryuuki.

"Ah! Brother!" Ryuuki jumped for the umpteenth time as he heard his sister's voice echo throughout the chamber. He turned around just in time to see two people, or rather, one person dragging another person by hand, leap the last set of stairs and land just a short distance away from where he stood.

Then it happened. The whole room was illuminated by the light from the pedestal in the center. The floor lit up, revealing the entire map-like drawings on it. A strange melody seemed to emanate from nowhere, yet it was heard everywhere throughout the chamber. Before anyone could react, which was not possible since everyone was too awe-struck to move a muscle, the floor seemed to fluctuate, then began sucking them all in like some gigantic quicksand. People began screaming and flailing, trying to claw their way out of the now mud-like surface.

Ryuuki struggled to stay aloft, all the while forcing himself towards Ryuuri, who looked absolutely terrified at the current predicament. Alas, the pull on him was too great, and Ryuuki began to sink down slowly, slowly, then at a faster pace. The last thing he saw before being completely swallowed up was a shimmering, what was it, ghosts? of various people and animal staring down at them, floating in the air…

Then all went black.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Just to be safe, I own absolutely nothing here, NOTHING!!!!

A/N: Note that I took quite a bit of liberty in setting a few of the backgrounds and character history, so please don't get all riled up when something seems weird, contradictory, out-of-character, or flat-out wrong. I haven't played these games for about two years now, so give me a break!

­**Chapter 2: Strange Encounter**

A small expanse of green, clean-cut grass stretched out over the fields. In the middle of it stood a modest-looking mansion, which was surrounded by various other small buildings. A medium-sized tea table stood in the front lawn, one of the seats occupied by a young woman with long green hair and wearing a simple orange dress.

Elincia sighed as she put down her teacup on the table. Although she had been living in this mansion for as long as she could remember, she still had not gotten used to the silence that tended to loom over the place every so often. To make matters worse, this place was strictly kept hidden from the rest of the world, being located at a remote area of the huge castle complex. However, this did give her a great deal of freedom. As a result she had tried out many different activities, some more ladylike than others. Accompanying her would be her aides and good friends Lucia and Geoffrey, who were practically siblings to her. Another person who would visit frequently was Count Bastian, whose dramatic speech and antics were always a source of mirth for her. Alas, Geoffrey was currently running a quick check around the perimeters in case an outsider somehow wound up within the grounds. As for Bastian, he was off doing his… count-ly duties.

"Is anything the matter?" the blue-haired woman clad in white inquired upon hearing Elincia let out a sigh.

"Oh, nothing," Elincia shook her head, "I was just thinking that it's another quiet day".

Lucia face fell slightly. It was quite a depressing situation. Due to some complicated political matters, Elincia had been forced to live a hidden, secluded life. In order to prevent people from noticing, traffic in and out of the mansion they lived in was strictly limited. As a result, it couldn't be helped that Elincia's life was rather dull and monotonous. She and her brother tried their best to keep Elincia in high-spirits, but it pained them greatly whenever they saw her gazing longingly out into the far horizons.

"Say, how about-" Lucia was about to suggest a little sword practice in an effort to improve Elincia's mood, when she noticed something from the corner of her eyes.

A strange glow was being emitted from a large tree not so far from their current position. It continued to glow for a few more seconds, before completely dissipating. Whatever it was, it smelled like magic at work.

"That light came from near that tree over yonder…" Elinica said as she looked towards said direction.

"Wait right here, my lady, I will go and find out what happened," Lucia said as she entered into professional mode.

She was about to dash off when Elincia grabbed her arm and said, "Wait, I'm coming too."

"Oh no, you are definitely NOT. Who knows what happened over there? Stay here where it's safe, please," Lucia began to protest, but Elincia had no intention of obeying.

"I think it would be much safer with you rather than being on my own. Besides, if it's dangerous, then I definitely will not send you there alone!" she countered.

Lucia opened her mouth to say something, but then realized that once Elincia had her mind set on something, it was pointless to argue.

"All right then, but stay close to me at all times," she relented as she grabbed her sword off the table. Hopefully it will be allowed to stay in its scabbard….

The duo made their way down to the site where the light had disappeard. Nothing seemed wrong as they got closer to their destination. Even so, Lucia maintained constant vigilance, her hands at the ready on her sword's hilt, expecting something to pop out and ambush them at anytime. She certainly did not expect to find three people lying on the grass.

"What the? What are these people doing here?" Lucia was utterly puzzled. This area should be off-limits to any outsiders, so how did these 3 strangers end up sprawled over the grounds like this?

"Oh no, do you think they're hurt?" Elincia said worriedly. Certainly, the three figures were not moving at all.

"Well, only one way to find out," Lucia approached the three prone figures, never dropping her guard for an instance. Carefully, she turned over one of the strangers. She was surprised at how young the girl seemed. She must still be in her teens. What was she doing all the way out here? Rather, how did she get in here in the first place? More questions kept popping up as Lucia went to check up on the other two. Aside from the one with the blonde-streaked black hair she checked first, there was a boy with a rather messy blonde hair sporting a pair of glasses. The last one was another male, this one with jet black hair tied into a ponytail slightly off to the side. All of them appeared to be around the same age.

"Well, it looks like they are simply unconscious," she said as she finished examining the black haired boy, "Geoffrey should be coming here shortly if he saw the light. Then we'll have his men move these three inside for the time being, I suppose."

"That's a relief," Elincia replied with a smile as she peered into the black haired youth Lucia had just finished checking.

It was then that she realized all three of them were peculiarly dressed. The bespectacled young man was dressed in a rather coarse-looking blue pants, a dark green coat of sorts with a hood attached to it and a picture of a green and blue circle on it (A/N the earth), and a strange-looking pair of shoes with two short straps running across the top (stickies). She also noticed a large baggage near him. The girl was dressed more normally, with a pink long skirt, white shirt, a black coat of sorts (A/N like the blue one Rinoa in FFVIII wears), and a pair of open-toed slippers. She had a small purse slung across her shoulder. The last one was dressed in long black pants, long sleeved black shirt, and a short-sleeved white jacket with two long coattails and a rather elaborate picture of a dragon, a bird, a turtle with a snake wrapped around it, and a tiger(A/N Seiryu, Suzaku, Genbu, Byakko). He also had a bag slung across his shoulder. All three of them also had a strange object strapped to their wrists. The girl's had a leather strap and was quite small. The black haired boy's had a metallic strap and was considerably larger than the girl's. The other young man's device was made of some black material, and was the only one without three "needles". Instead, it showed numbers, which was constantly changing.

As Elinicia and Lucia continued to observe the mysterious trio, the black haired youth began to stir.

"Ugh…" the youth groaned as he struggled to get up, covering his face with one hand.

"Oh, you're awake, thank goodness", Elincia said as she kneeled down next to him. He turned his gaze to her, blinking a few times rapidly, as if he was quite disoriented. A few seconds later, he seemed to have regained his senses as he asked uncertainly, "Uhh… who might you be?"

Before Elincia could give her name, Lucia abruptly cut her off. Outsiders were not supposed to know about her, after all.

"I think the question is who YOU are. This area is off-limits, how did you get in here?" Lucia asked curtly.

"Get in… here?" the youth looked perplexed. He took a look around at his surroundings, and then suddenly became wide-eyed. "Wait a minute, where am I?! What happened to the ruins?!"

His sudden outburst caught the two women off-guard, as well as utterly confusing them. What ruins? There weren't any ruins nearby as far as they were aware. Before they could say anything, he caught sight of the other two lying on the grass behind him.

"Lloyd, Liliana!" the young man exclaimed as he scurried over to them. After seeing that they were unharmed, he let out a sigh of relief, then proceeded to shake them awake, "hey, both of you, wake up!"

The girl, who was apparently called "Liliana" managed to slowly get up, though her eyes were still a bit glazed. The male called "Lloyd", on the other hand, seemed to be getting up, but then promptly rolled over to his side muttering something that sounded like, "5 more minutes, mom".

"Lloyd, I'm not your mom, and this is no time to be snoozing!" Ryuuki gave Lloyd a finger-flick to his forehead, which managed to jolt the latter awake.

"Yee-ouch! What's that for Ryu?!" the blonde exclaimed as he rubbed his forehead.

"…it was just a flick…" Ryuuki was taken aback by Lloyd's over-exaggerated reaction.

"Dude, you break bricks with a kick! Watch your strength, for crying out-" Lloyd trailed off as he finally registered that they were in a strange situation.

"Hey… Ryu, where are we?" Lloyd asked pointing at the mansion that visible a little distance away, then, jabbing his thumb towards the two women, "and who are they?"

"I don't know, and it's rude to point," Ryuuki replied as he put Lloyd's hand down.

"So…. Mind explaining yourselves any time soon?" Ryuuki almost jumped at the voice. He turned around and saw that the blue-haired lady was the one who had spoken. Wait, "blue" hair? Now that he could see more clearly, the other one had _green_ hair. Not only that, they were dressed rather strangely. The green haired one was wearing a simple dress, although the style seemed like it was from the Victorian age or something. As for the other one, she was dressed in white clothing that just looked a bit… odd. What drew his attention the most, however, was the gleaming hilt of the sword that she had by her side. Isn't there a law against carrying guns and swords around?

"Um… actually…" Ryuuki barely got started when he heard a group of horses galloping towards them. Now, if the other two were dressed rather strangely, the ones that came now were DEFINITELY from another period in time. Most of them sported simple white armor with a green cape billowing behind them, armed with various assortments of medieval weapons ranging from bows, swords, lances, and even axes. The one with short blue hair at the front who seemed to be their leader was much more noticeable, as he sported a heavy-looking green armor and held a pretty big lance by his side. He was promptly followed by a man in red armor, this one holding a pretty big axe in his hand

"I knew it! Intruders! My lady, Lucia, are you both unhurt?" the lead rider exclaimed as he jumped off his horse, lance aimed straight at Ryuuki, who had moved in front of the only female of the group to shield her, warily eyeing the weapon.

'"My lady?" Are they filming a movie here or something?' Ryuuki thought as this new turn of events puzzled him even further.

"You there, how did you get in this place, explain yourself!" the spearman demanded, keeping his lance aimed at Ryuuki's heart the whole time, ready to lunge should this outsider make any sudden moves.

Before Ryuuki could answer, he was cut off yet again, this time by the one the man referred to as 'my lady'.

"Please, Geoffrey, I don't think they mean any harm. We found them lying unconscious here."

"My lady, the mere fact that they are HERE to begin with makes them highly suspicious. It was fortunate that we were close by when that suspicious light appeared. Who knows what these cretins are up to?" Geoffrey asserted as he shifted the lance towards the blonde youth.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!! Point that thing elsewhere, will ya! You can kill someone with that thing!" Lloyd exclaimed as he backed off a few steps, only to jump as he felt a prick behind him. Looking back, he saw that the other soldiers had them surrounded, all with their weapons pointed towards the three students.

"That will depend on your answer," the man called Geoffrey replied as he once again pointed his lance at Ryuuki. Liliana flinched as she saw the point of the lance came within centimeters of Ryuuki's throat, although Ryuuki himself remained still as a stone, though his fingers were curled up like claws and his muscles tensed.

"Dude, we're just, uh, lost is all. I mean, just where the hell are we, anyway?!" Lloyd was sweating profusely as he watched the soldiers take a step closer towards them.

"Brother, I don't think that would be really necessary," this time the women in white stepped in, "I checked them and found no weapons whatsoever. That, and they really do seem lost. Besides, they appear to be just children."

"But-"

"Please Geoffrey, could we at least talk to them back at the mansion? I think you're scaring them," Elincia pleaded as she glanced towards the girl, who was trembling and had tears forming at the corner of her eyes.

"Uh, I didn't mean to, I mean, very well, my lady," Geoffrey answered awkwardly, feeling uncomfortable that he, a knight of chivalry, almost made a young girl cry.

The moment the soldiers withdrew their weapons, Lloyd let out a huge breath of relief, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand, muttering, "Man, I thought we were in one hell of a trouble"

The other young man relaxed a bit, though his eyes still remained alert, darting from one soldier to another, as the three of them were led towards a large mansion that was nearby. The girl was still trembling slightly, maintaining a firm grip on the black haired youth's arm the whole time.

'Okay now, how to get out of this mess?' was what Ryuuki was thinking as they approached the mansion.

* * *

Blue Orbi Angel: He wrote more, all right, so here it is. It's good to know you're enjoying it~


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Just to be safe, I own absolutely nothing here, NOTHING!!!!.

**Chapter 3: Tellius**

Once they arrived, the three youths were taken to the drawing room. At Elincia's request, Geoffrey reluctantly ordered his men to stand guard outside, leaving only the three youths, Lucia, himself, and Elincia in the room.

"Well, I believe we should start off with a simple introduction," Elincia began, before Lucia leaned over and whispered something into her ears.

"My lady, do you think that's wise?"

"No one's supposed to know about me, so I don't think revealing my name would do any harm. Don't worry, I won't mention _that,_" Elincia whispered back. Lucia seemed to relent, though she still had a worried look on her face.

"My name is Elincia, and this is…" she turned to the woman next to her.

"I am Lucia, pleased to make your acquaintance," she said with a somewhat forced smile.

"And I am Geoffrey. I, err… apologize for my behavior from before," Geoffrey said rather sheepishly towards the girl.

"Oh, um, it's all right, I'm just glad nothing bad happened…" she replied quietly.

"Sure took ten years of my life away, though, sheesh," Lloyd muttered.

"Lloyd," Ryuuki gave him a reprimanding look.

"It's just a joke, man. Anyways, guess I'll go next. The name's Lloyd, Lloyd Finegan."

"Lloydfinegan? That is a rather… unique name," Lucia said curiously.

"Huh, you think? I don't think Finegan is that uncommon a surname, and there's like 50 other Lloyds at our school," Lloyd replied as he scratched his head.

"Surname?! So you're a from a noble family?!" Geoffrey cut in, his eyes wide.

"Huh? Noble?" the blonde blinked in confusion.

"Yes, only members of nobility possess surnames," Geoffrey continued.

"Err… is that right? I sure as hell don't FEEL like a noble. Well, I guess Liliana here is practically nobility though, eh?" he said as he turned to the girl.

"So you really are nobles, then?" Lucia interjected.

"Umm… no, we're simply students. In fact, the concept of nobility is more or less banned where we come from," Liliana replied, recalling that titles of nobility were not allowed in the States. Had they wound up in some faraway country somehow? Judging from the surname-nobility connection, this was most certainly not the States.

"What?! How can that be?" the two blue heads exclaimed in unison, then Lucia continued, "Just where are you from, anyway?"

"The States, of course," Lloyd answered, earning himself three sets of puzzled faces.

"The… states?" Elinica asked.

"Yeah, you know, the United States of America?"

The three perplexed figures exchanged glance, then Lucia spoke up, "Never heard of it, is it a province of Begnion, perhaps?"

Now it was the other three people's turn to be confused.

"Begnion? What the heck is that?" Lloyd asked.

"What? How can you not know Begnion? It's the biggest nation on the continent!" Geoffrey was completely aghast at the young man's ignorance.

"Uh… which continent are we on, exactly?" Ryuuki asked Geoffrey. Try as he might, he could not remember ever seeing the name "Begnion" on any of the political maps he had seen.

"'Which continent?' Tellius, of course! What other continents are there?"

"Tellius?" Ryuuki was utterly clueless as to what Geoffrey was referring to. After thinking for a few seconds, he asked if he could get his confiscated bag back, as he wanted to show them something. Geoffrey was still a bit wary, but the Elincia complied, so he had no choice but to have his men bring in the outsiders' possessions. Lloyd nearly threw a fit when one of them accidentally dropped his bag onto the table, hard. After quickly silencing his friend, Ryuuki proceeded to pull out a large, hardcover book from his bag.

"Dude, what's with all the books?" Lloyd chirped as he peeked into Ryuuki's bag, which contained several more volumes of varying size and thickness.

"I thought they might be useful as reference. For the ruins, I mean," was Ryuuki's response as he turned the cover over, revealing a fairly detailed world map. Lloyd gave a dubious look as he noticed that some of the books had nothing to do with ruins at all. There was a Calculus workbook, a Government textbook, a recently updated version of an encyclopedia, and a thick notebook which he suspected were all Ryuuki's personal notes. Why in blazes did he bring all of this for? Then he realized that his friend hardly ever changed the contents in his school bag. Knowing him, he probably had left all of his school stuff in his bag when he packed the reference tools in there. The only time he would empty its contents would be when a new school year _began_, not when it _ended_.

"What is this supposed to be?" Lucia asked as she leaned forward to get a better look at the strange-looking book.

"It's a map of the world," Ryuuki explained as he turned the book so it faced her, "could you point out where Tellius is?"

After a few seconds of searching the map, Lucia withdrew, even more confused than she was before.

"Are you… certain that this is a world map?"

"Well, the book is a bit outdated, so some of the third-world nations may be depicted a bit off, but it should still be quite accurate."

Lucia got up and walked over to a rack against the wall, pulling out a long, rolled-up parchment. She spread it out across the table, revealing a map dominated by a single large landmass.

"This, is the map of Tellius," Lucia explained as she pointed to a region to the left of the continent, "and this is the Kingdom of Crimea, where we are. And this large country to the right is the aforementioned Begnion Empire."

Ryuuki's eyes carefully scanned the map. Nope, none of the names or the shape of the land rang a bell. Excusing himself, he turned to his two friends and began to discuss the matter at hand.

They all agreed that they have never seen or heard of this 'Tellius' before. The map before them was completely foreign. And they also agreed that if it DID exist, there was no way that the satellites could have missed it. Thus, the logical conclusion was that the map before them was either misrepresented, or the continent depicted in it did not exist at all. Of course, they had to rule out the latter thought for now, since they were, well, HERE. How can they be present at a place that did not exist? Then the question was raised if this was all just a grandiose prank. Ryuuki ruled out that notion. Who on earth would go through all the trouble of setting up a mansion, dressing up people to look like medieval soldiers, and come up with such a detailed map? Not only that, the spears and the hostility he had felt from the soldiers earlier were quite real. He was sure that he felt their suspicions and aggression. That, and the confusion of the trio before them was genuine when they were shown the world map from his book. Those reactions were definitely no acting. Which led to two rather unlikely, if not downright ludicrous explanations: these people were so detached from the rest of the world that they were trapped in their own little "world", thinking that's all that existed, or the three of them were in a completely different world altogether. Finally, they gave up trying to find a logical explanation to their current situation.

"Okay, so, like, we have no idea what's going on. None, nada, zip, nil," Lloyd sighed as he slumped back onto his chair, earning himself a reproachful look from Liliana at his lack of manners. From what she could tell from the surroundings and the way the other people behaved, these three, particularly Elinica, was an aristocrat of some sort. She hoped that Lloyd's behavior and speech pattern did not offend anyone.

"Nada?" was the first thing Elincia said.

"Huh? Oh, it means "nothing" in Spanish. Pretty much one of only words I know."

"Spanish?" this time all three of the Crimeans spoke.

"Uh… it's the language used in this country here," Lloyd said, pointing at Mexico on Ryuuki's book.

"Actually, the language originally came from here," Ryuuki added, pointing at Spain, "then the language came over when the Spanish Empire began expanding between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries, which then…"

"Yo, Ryu, spare me the history lesson, I'm still having nightmares over that Spanish culture test," Lloyd said sadly.

"Anyways, you mentioned that Tellius is the only continent? How did that happen?" Liliana asked Elincia before the topic became too side-tracked.

"Oh yes, about that, it is said that the Dark God caused a great flood during the ancient war, which sank all the land under the sea except Tellius."

"A flood?" Ryuuki inquired. Something about that bothered him, as if he was forgetting something.

"Hey, Ryuuki, didn't that ruins have a mural depicting a flood?" Liliana's words helped clear that up.

"You're right, that mural on the wall…"

"A mural?" Elincia asked. Today was a day full of questions and surprises, to be sure.

"Remember I mentioned some ruins earlier?" Ryuuki turned to her, "there was a mural across a wall, depicting a huge flood…."

All of a sudden, something clicked in his mind.

"Now that I think about it, I remember seeing this map before!" Ryuuki directed his attention back to the map of Tellius.

"You did?" Lloyd and Liliana sounded surprised. So, this place really did exist somewhere on earth?

"Remember the floor of that ruins? I only saw a portion of it, but it looked almost exactly like this area here," Ryuuki pointed at the western corner of the map, "Crimea… that was the word written on it, although it was in a different character…"

Now that he thought about it, the words Crimea here was written in English, but the one back at the ruins were written in a different, more loopy-looking letters.

"So… what does that mean? Are we at the place where the people who built those ruins came from?" Liliana asked her friend.

"Well, that's the thing… It's clear that those ruins are connected to this place. But, obviously the people here know nothing about our place. So, how did those ruins get there? I mean, a sizable number of people must have migrated from here in order to build something that big. For that matter, if they really did come over, why are there no records of that civilization, and why is there no sign of expansion of that culture beyond that single ruins?" Ryuuki fell back onto his own chair, putting one hand over his eyes. This just kept getting better. Trying to come up with an answer for some questions, he ended up with even more of them.

The ensuing silence was broken by Elincia.

"So, from what I understand, you have found some ruins in your country that depicts Tellius and the Great Flood?" she asked tentatively.

"Yes, we were touring the ruins when there was a sudden flash of light, followed by a strange song. Immediately after that, we were literally sucked into the ground. The next thing we knew, we were, well, here." Ryuuki recounted the bizarre event back in the ruins. Unfortunately, this brought up yet another source of trouble for him.

"That's right! Ryuuri! Have any of you seen a girl nearby? Long black hair, blue jeans, white shirt, pink coat?" the Crimeans were taken aback by Ryuuki's sudden outburst, then proceeded to shake their heads. Not a very reassuring answer.

The results were quite drastic. Ryuuki looked like something had just sapped all his energy, sinking further into his chair, his eyes looking rather hollow. Ryuuri must have come here as well. Recounting what had happened to his little group (being surrounded by armed, hostile soldiers, utterly lost and disoriented, etc.), he couldn't bear to think what might have befallen his sister.

Noticing the dumbstruck look on the Crimeans' faces, Lloyd sighed and said, "it's… just a little issue he has, don't worry about it," as Liliana tried to console the overprotective brother, who looked as if he had just seen the end of the world.

"Well, this seems to have gotten quite complicated… To sum it up, you are from a distant continent, and you ended up here because of a strange phenomenon at ruins which seems to have a connection to Tellius, correct?" Lucia turned to Lloyd, since the youth they called Ryuuki was obviously in no condition to answer as of the moment.

"Well, more or less, although we have never heard of this Tellius. I suppose we will just put that aside as a minor oversight for now. No use thinking about it anymore for the time being, you know?" Lloyd replied, hoping that this business could be put to rest for now.

"I see… although it is hard to believe that so many continents might still exist somewhere across the sea," Lucia looked over at Ryuuki's map, "I suppose that it's not entirely impossible."

Any further comments were abruptly blown to oblivion as an audible rumble sounded throughout the drawing room.

"Uh…. Sorry about that…" an embarrassed-looking Lloyd apologized. Apparently, his stomach had demanded to be filled just then.

"Now that you mention it, we have been talking for a long time, I'll have the kitchen informed immediately," Lucia smiled as she called someone from the hall.

"Now then, let us proceed to the dining hall, miss…" Geoffrey trailed off as he realized that two of their intruders-turned-guests hadn't introduced themselves properly yet.

"Oh, excuse me, my name is Liliana Julius, it's a pleasure to meet you," Liliana answered with a slight bow. Geoffrey traded glances with his sister. Although the youth named Lloyd denied the fact that they were nobles, despite possessing surnames, this particular young lady certainly had an air of elegance about her, especially when compared to the mannerism of the blonde male.

"Pleased to meet you as well, lady Liliana, and…" Elincia returned the greetings and finally turned to the only one yet to have introduced himself. Liliana seems to have succeeded in calming the young man down, as he seemed normal again, except that he seemed a bit strained.

"Ayanokouji Ryuuki, pleased to meet you," Ryuuki answered as he bowed.

"Ayano… um…" Elinicia fumbled over the peculiar name.

"You can just call me Ryuuki, a lot of people have some trouble with my surname," Ryuuki said smilingly.

"Surname?"

"Oh, my parents are originally from Japan, where we state our surnames before our given names. So that makes Ayanokouji my surname, and Ryuuki my given name," he explained.

"I see, well, my lord Ryuuki, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance as well," Elincia continued.

"Um… please, just call me Ryuuki. 'My lord' sounds a bit… awkward."

* * *

Thingy Person: There's a lot going to happen in the near future, so look forward to that.

Blue Orbi Angel: Geoffrey is chivalrous to a fault, haha. Poor man. We're all sugar high in our own way (like me), no worries~

Mrs. Neji Uchiha: Sorry for the wait, here it is.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I own nothing…

**Chapter 4: The Duel**

The meal was quite splendid. Ryuuki was reminded of when he attended Liliana's birthday party shortly after transferring to the current school district. Everything looked grand and delicious. Apparently, the chef was asked to put in a little extra effort for this one. The meal was accompanied by a more light-hearted chat, mostly involving the difference in culture and customs of America, Crimea, and, in Ryuuki's case, Japan, which seemed to fascinate Elincia more than the rest (A/N Well, I figured that since Fire Emblem worlds usually have heavy western influence, eastern culture must seem more strange and exotic, but that's just me). After the fantastic feast was over, the six of them went out to the tea table where Elincia and Lucia were at earlier that day. As they enjoyed the fragrant after-meal tea, the topic of the conversation shifted to Geoffrey and Lucia's weapons.

"So, you use swords and spears in this place?" Lloyd asked the two.

"Well, of course, what else would we use as a weapon?" Geoffrey replied, not sure why Lloyd would ask such an obvious question.

"So, no guns or anything then?" the science-geek continued.

"Guns?" the Crimeans said in unison once again.

"Never mind," Lloyd decided to back off. If this place didn't know about firearms, it would be best not to introduce it to them. Deciding that he should say something else to divert the attention of the Crimeans off of him and guns, he turned to Ryuuki, "Say, Ryu, you're into martial arts right?"

"Hmm? Yes, what about it?" Ryuuki asked over his teacup. This lit up Geoffrey's eye.

"Martial arts? So you're a warrior then, Lord Ryuuki?"

"Uhh… please, just say Ryuuki, this "lord" thing is just a bit too... And anyway, it's more for sport and discipline, so-" he was cut off yet again by Lloyd.

"Oh, come on, man, don't be so modest! You could've won that national championship had you entered! Hell, whenever some thug at school tries to extort money from me, I just tell them that you're my best friend, and THEY give ME THEIR money."

"…I would appreciate it if you wouldn't drag me into those sorts of things, Lloyd."

The little chatter was interrupted by Geoffrey clearing his throat.

"Well, it seems you're friend has nothing but praises for your skills. If you don't mind, would you grant me the honor of experiencing the combat techniques of your land?"

"Actually, the things I learned are eastern martial arts, and I didn't really train formally-"

"I said lay off the history lesson, go for it man!" Ryuuki never got to finish as Lloyd slapped him in the back. Ryuuki gave a sigh. This was starting to get way out of hand. Sure, he practiced martial arts, but it was largely mimicking movements he saw on televised tournaments or trying out moves described in books. In fact, his style was largely self-invented, since he never had an official trainer and simply tinkered a bit with the things he learned. He seriously doubted that such a haphazard fighting-style would last long against a real fighter.

The two men took their place in front of the rest of the four people. Several guards on break came over to take a look as well. Both of them had a wooden training staff in hand. Ryuuki tried swinging it around a bit, getting a feel for it. It was surprisingly light, despite being quite thick and sturdy. A little too sturdy for his tastes, actually, since he was more used to the Chinese pole-weapons, which were mostly made out of flexible wax wood. He continued to swing and twirl it for a few more seconds, and then finally took his stance, keeping his body quite low and the staff pointing slightly towards the ground in front of him.

Geoffrey took his stance while waiting for Ryuuki to get ready. Although Ryuuki's stance was quite peculiar, as well as the way wielded the staff during his warm-up, Geoffrey could tell that he was well-versed in the martial arts, just like Lloyd had said. His stance showed no particular weakness, since his current position allowed him to counter attacks from any direction. One particular trait Geoffrey had observed from Ryuuki's brief practice was that his movements were, to put it simply, round. His movements were fluid and continuous, with seemingly no beginnings or ends to each of his movements.

After staying motionless for a while, Geoffrey decided that Ryuuki had no intention of making the first move, and so he charged in first. No matter how skilled the boy was, he had no intention of losing in front of his sister and Elincia. He made a strong swing to his left, which Ryuuki parried. Ryuuki gritted his teeth as the impact from the blow traveled up to his arms. Geoffrey's blows were swift and heavy, and if he were to try and parry all of them his arms would probably break before long. With that in mind, he dodged the next blow from his left by ducking and pivoting around to Geoffrey's right. As he delivered a swing from the right, Geoffrey took a step back and swung his own staff to meet Ryuuki's blow. He was surprised when he felt almost no resistance and Ryuuki's staff moved away so easily, but the blow that came towards his head from the other side surprised him even more. Quickly parrying with his staff again, Geoffrey began to realize what Ryuuki was doing. Unlike the first exchange of blows, in which Ryuuki had made a stand against Geoffrey's strikes, Ryuuki was now using Geoffrey's blows against him. Each time Geoffrey made to parry one of Ryuuki's strikes, Ryuuki simply used the force of the blows to add more momentum to his own strikes in the other direction, which forced Geoffrey to parry again. The vicious cycle continued, with Ryuuki's uncanny attacks keeping Geoffrey on the defensive.

Geoffrey mentally cursed. If only he could disrupt his adversary's pattern for but a moment, he could turn this situation around. While Ryuuki's speedy, continuous attacks were hard to deal with, Geoffrey knew that once the cycle was broken, the whole tactic would fall apart. Momentum was the key to this sort of fighting style, and Geoffrey decided to break it. Taking a leaf from Ryuuki's book, Geoffrey suddenly dodged the next incoming blow by ducking instead of parrying it again. Naturally, Ryuuki's swing went wild and he was left completely open for a strike. Or so Geoffrey thought as he lunged forward with his staff. Ryuuki simply spun off to one side, allowing the momentum of his missed swing to carry him away from Geoffrey's jab. Then, planting his feet firmly into the ground, Ryuuki replied with a lunge of his own, aiming straight at Geoffrey's exposed side. Geoffrey barely managed to twist his body out of harm's way, only to see Ryuuki's staff withdraw and swing around in a full circle… right down on his face. Geoffrey's last evasion had cost him his footing, so he had no way of dodging this next blow. If that's the case, why bother dodging? He brought up his staff and blocked the incoming strike, then quickly turned his staff to one side, intending to pin Ryuuki's staff to the ground. Unfortunately, Ryuuki simply used to rebound from his parried blow to twirl and jump back, foiling Geoffrey's plans, but at least it gave him enough time to get back up and take his stance again. Although a lot of baffling things happened today, Geoffrey was glad about at least one thing. Here was a decent opponent.

Lloyd let out a low whistle as he watched his friend duel.

"Wow… I knew he was good, but… wow…" was all he could say.

"Incredible, for someone so young to be holding his own against Geoffrey…" Elincia murmured in awe.

"How strong is Sir Geoffrey, lady Elincia?" Liliana inquired. She knew nothing about fighting, but she could still tell that the duel between the two was quite a spectacle, if the "ooohs" and "aaaahs" of the crowd of guards was any indication.

"'How strong?' He's the best there is! The greatest knight in all of Crimea, nay, in all of Tellius! Well, save perhaps Duke Renning." Everyone jumped at the sudden outburst, which came from one of Geoffrey's subordinates, the knight in red.

"Um… pardon me, but you are…" Liliana began.

"Ah! How rude of me! My name is Kieran! I am a knight serving under Sir Geoffrey, it is an honor to make your acquaintance!" the knight calling himself Kieran was positively yelling the whole time.

"It's a, er… pleasure to meet you too…" Lloyd replied, unsure of what the man's problem was.

"You mentioned a Duke Renning?" Liliana asked the knight.

"Lord Renning is the king's brother, and a renowned warrior throughout Tellius! A peerless knight! Putting that aside, I must say, however, that your friend is quite impressive himself," Kieran turned his gaze back to the duel.

The two were evenly matched for a while, but then Ryuuki's movements began to slow down, and he was eventually forced into the defensive. Seizing his opponent's faltering momentum, Geoffrey pressed his attack. As he put all his strength into one mighty swing, Ryuuki brought his staff forward to parry, but was still sent flying back quite a distance. The thing was, there was a distinct "crack" the moment the blow connected. The crowd went immediately silent. Geoffrey froze, staring at Ryuuki lying on the ground. Uh, oh, had he gone a bit overboard? From what he could tell, the young man's techniques were superb, although a tad bit unrefined. But his attacks lacked intensity behind it, suggesting that he has never had any real combat experience. He began to mentally berate himself for letting his adrenaline get the better of him when Ryuuki back-flipped off the ground. It turned out that the thing that went "crack" was the staff. All those present let out a sigh of relief. They had feared that a bone might've been broken from the impact. Then the soldiers began cheering. It was a good match, to be sure, but no kid was going to get the better of their leader.

"Awwww, he lost," Lloyd moaned.

"Well, of course! There's no way that Sir Geoffrey could possibly lose!" Kieran sounded as if it had been him who had just sent Ryuuki flying.

"I, I'm just glad that he wasn't hurt," Liliana was still breathing a bit heavily with her hands over her heart. If that crack had belonged to Ryuuki's bones instead of his staff… it would've been bad, to say the least.

"It was a good match, I'm surprised he lasted this long," Lucia commented over the cheers of the guards, "perhaps I'll ask for a duel myself sometime in the-"

The other three looked up at Lucia, wondering why she paused in mid-sentence. Then, following her gaze, saw that Ryuuki was taking off what looked to be rather large wristbands. He also took off similar looking bands from above each of his ankles.

"What's he doing now?" Liliana began when Ryuuki dropped the bands, which landed with a dull, yet audible "thud". She also noticed that they dug a bit into the ground as well. "Did you… hear that?"

"'_Hear it'_? How about '_see it'_? Just how much do those things _weigh _to be so loud on impact? Hell, it dug right into the ground too!" Lloyd exclaimed with his jaws open wide.

"He can't be planning on continuing? Can he?" Elincia looked to Lucia. Before Lucia could reply, the soldier's gasps directed all of their attention back towards the two combatants.

Something (else) had been nagging Ryuuki for a while now. He had recently increased the weight on his training bands, which meant that it took him extra effort to move "normally". However, he had noticed that ever since they came to this "Tellius", he had been able to move somewhat "normally", even with the weights on, which was why he didn't bother to take them off during round one. Unfortunately, this Geoffrey was no pushover he could beat half-heartedly. And, if his hunch was right, he could probably take full advantage of THAT he had been working on. Holding the split halves of his staff like twin short swords, Ryuuki dashed off.

Geoffrey was ready for Ryuuki's charge. That is, he was ready to take on what came in _front_ of him. He certainly did not expect Ryuuki to suddenly drop down and slide between his legs and jump back up behind him. Wasting no time, Geoffrey took a wild swing behind him in hopes of driving Ryuuki back. Ryuuki parried the blow with one of the staff fragments. Then, using that as leverage, twirled over to the other side of the staff cartwheel-style. Immediately upon landing, he swept out with his left leg, knocking Geoffrey off balance. Before Geoffrey could regain his footing, Ryuuki followed up by twisting his body and delivering a kick straight up at the knight's face. With no time to bring his staff up to parry, Geoffrey swung out his left arm instead. He was surprised by the amount of force the kick carried. Not only had Ryuuki's speed increased upon taking off those weights, but the strength of his strikes had powered-up as well. Not to mention, his fighting style had changed quite a bit. Before, he relied more on defensive maneuvers followed up by clever counters to throw off the opponent's momentum. Now, he simply pressed on, overwhelming his adversary with his unnaturally fast speed and reflexes, although those surprise counters still showed their faces every now and then, which served to further throw Geoffrey off.

Ryuuki was on the roll now, swinging, kicking, spinning, kicking, jumping, kicking, twirling and kicking some more. His movements were fast and abrupt, but his characteristic fluid and continuous momentum still remained, making his attacks look more like a fast-paced dance. A violent, dangerous dance, one might add.

Geoffrey had decided to get serious at this point, however. He couldn't avoid being pelted by a few kicks here and there, due to the sheer speed of the attacks, but he did manage to avoid any serious blows. After forcing Ryuuki to back off with another powerful sweep of his staff, Geoffrey began to spin his weapon around as fast as he could, planning on using the additional momentum to bolster his attack. Forget precaution, this was a duel between two men, and holding back would merely insult the other's pride and honor as a warrior. And honor was what Geoffrey lived for.

Ryuuki took a pause from his un-ending dance and looked as Geoffrey began to gather centrifugal force with his staff. Well, centrifugal force isn't actually a force, so to speak, but more of a misperception arising from the fact that one's position doesn't seem to change as force travels in one direc- Ryuuki quickly dismissed the explanation rambling in his head. Another bad habit was that he tended to launch into logical justifications and the like whenever faced with a question or a misconception. He couldn't help it; he just had that urge to explain. He had better focus on what will probably be the final exchange of this duel.

Mustering every last bit of strength left in him, Ryuuki pounded on the ground. In mere seconds, he had covered the distance between them and landed a few feet behind Geoffrey. Before Geoffrey could turn, Ryuuki dashed off again, this time facing Geoffrey from his left. He continued to dash all over at an insane speed. Soon, his constant motion made it unclear when and where he was going to strike.

Geoffrey couldn't help but smile. The child was good, really good. He figured that in a contest of strength, he would be at a disadvantage. In terms of agility, Ryuuki was slightly superior. As for Geoffrey's deathblow, it would be devastating only if it actually HITS. Keeping these in mind, he had decided to use his speed to its full extent to confuse his opponent, which would lower the chance of him being struck by the final strike. A fine strategy, indeed. Too bad that Geoffrey wasn't a military idol for nothing. At the moment that Ryuuki made his move, everything seemed to slow down for a split second for Geoffrey. Gathering all his focus that had been honed over years of training and fighting, the knight pinpointed the exact location where the youth planned on striking him from. Once he had it, he let all the pent up force loose.

The whole thing had been a blur of movement to the onlookers. The next thing they knew, Ryuuki was kneeling on the ground a good distance away from Geoffrey, holding his left arm with his right. There were 3 empty patches of grass between the two, and Ryuuki was covered in dirt at a few places. Where Geoffrey had struck the ground was cracked, and his practice staff was completely shattered.

The small crowd was dead silent. What just happened?

"I see… Brilliant maneuver at the last second," Lucia murmured as she replayed the decisive moment in her mind.

"What… what just happened?" Liliana asked the blue haired woman.

According to Lucia, Ryuuki found out that his plan had been foiled, and at the rate he was charging in, would surely be on the receiving end of the terrible deathblow. Since simply changing direction was out of the question at the velocity he was going at, he immediately stamped on the ground with his right leg in hopes of at least dodging by a hair. Unfortunately for him, the blow to his left came much quicker than he expected. Using his left fragment of the staff, he attempted to pull off the parry stunt he had performed earlier. But the sheer power behind Geoffrey's final blow against the tip of the fragment caused Ryuuki to start spinning in mid-air uncontrollably, the angle at which the blow landed acting like a leverage of sorts. The momentum sent Ryuuki flying off to the left, slamming onto the ground 3 times before he managed to land with his feet (thus, the dirt on him). In the meanwhile, Geoffrey's staff had finished its movement, shattering upon impact since a mere piece of wood could not withstand the ferocity of his attack, which had utterly pulverized the staff fragment that Ryuuki had used to parry it, which was why Ryuuki was cradling his left arm. It hurt like hell.

At the very least, this split-second decision did save him from worse injuries, but the constant dashing about, followed by that painful flight across the field, had taken its toll on Ryuuki's body. His breathing was heavy, and he winced every time he took a step. Clearly, his body was not capable of handling all that physical stress from that inhuman speed of his. Just because he _could _move at that speed did not mean that his body could _handle_ it. Geoffrey was better off, but wasn't unscathed, either. While he did block most of the hard blows, a few kicks had managed to get through his guard, and they sure as hell weren't a simple tap on the shoulder. Every time one of those kicks landed, he felt as if someone had whacked him good with a steel lance. To top it off, that last strike had cost him quite a deal of stamina as well. He certainly wasn't expecting the child to pull of a desperate evasive maneuver at the very moment of the blow. His amazement and respect for the youth grew with each moment. He turned and walked towards his opponent, to whom Liliana was lending her shoulder in order to help him walk.

"Ow… I think I overdid it… may have pulled a few muscles…" Ryuuki winced as a fresh wave of pain shot up throughout his body.

"I believe 'overdid it' is an understatement, just look at you, you can barely walk!" Liliana scolded somewhat uncharacteristically. As always, any hint of aggressiveness from the lady of the powerful Julii Conglomerate amused her friend, but at the moment the pain was taking up more of his attention.

"That was a fine match, Ryuuki," Geoffrey smiled as he held out a hand.

"Thank you, Sir Geoffrey, Argh!" Ryuuki gave a small jolt as the handshake brought about more pain.

* * *

ANBU are Sexy: Social fires? I hope everything is all right there.

Chef Colette: Good to hear, here's the next chapter. A lot's going to happen sooner or later, yeah.

Blue Orbi Angel: A character from Fire Emblem coming to the real world, eh? I may not be the author of this fanfiction, but it sounds neat and would be nice if written and executed well. Skirmir would draw the FBI the moment he arrives! Ah, Ayame, his antics are precious. Good to see that you enjoyed the chapter, too.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I own nothing…

**Chapter 5: Pleasant Talks**

Needless to say, Ryuuki had to spend the rest of the day in one of the guestrooms in order to heal up. Liliana offered to watch over him, but Ryuuki insisted that she go spend some more time with the others. Agreeing reluctantly, she left the room and joined the others in the lounge. It was starting to get dark and chilly outside, so a roaring fire had been started in the fireplace before them.

The five of them (Kieran had gone back to drill the other knights) continued to ask about each other's homelands, until eventually the questions began to revolve around personal matters.

"My lord Lloyd, I've been meaning to ask, just what is in that bag you are always carrying around?" Elincia asked curiously at the bulging sports bag that lay beside Lloyd's couch.

"Oh, this? Just some stuff I work with. Want a look?" Seeing the eager look of the others, Lloyd started to empty the contents of the bag onto the table in front of him. Out came a slew of objects, some of which even caused Liliana to be dumbfounded. There was a big, metallic case, a pair of what looked like walkie-talkies, a whole set of chemistry lab equipments like tongs and the sort, measuring devices including a weight balance, a device vaguely resembling a cell phone, a headset with a mic and visor attached to it, and so on.

"How did you manage to carry all these?" Liliana asked, remembering how Ryuuki had to help Lloyd carry the bag whenever they changed locations here.

"I didn't, Felix did, remember?" was the reply. Now that he mentioned it, she did remember Felix carrying the overstuffed bag. It was good workout for him, apparently. Liliana began to wonder just how much weight Felix was capable of lifting if carrying all this didn't bother him one bit.

"What in Ashera's name are these things?" Lucia said as she stared at the various gadgets.

"Well, for starters we have this," Lloyd began, picking up the 'cell phone', "this is basically a radar, mainly meant for biological things. You can switch between heat, radio wave, and so on."

Seeing that the Crimeans were completely at a loss, he sighed and explained, "Basically, it tells you if there is something alive around you."

"What about this?" Geoffrey held up the big metallic case.

"Oh, that contains an assorted collection of some chemicals that I thought might come in handy. You want to be careful with that, although I made the case extra strong, one wrong move and we might end up with a chain reaction involving explosions and toxic fumes," Lloyd replied casually, which contrasted sharply with the gravity of the hazard the case could potentially be. Rather, was it completely legal to possess and carry those things around?

After introducing each of his gadgets in turn, the groups' attention was directed at the last item, a rectangular box. Apparently, this was Lloyd's little "project" that he had been working on since 2 years ago. Basically, it was an energy converter. It transformed mechanical energy that is put into it to electrical energy. While it sounded simple enough, the key was that it is meant to produce way more energy than was put it. In other words, it was more of a crazy amplifier. His plan was to basically create a system which can easily produce energy once the initial ingredients were set in place. As one might expect, not easy, and he had been stuck for a while now, but refused to give up.

After the rest of the group blinked in confusion, Liliana included, as she didn't know much about Lloyd's hobby (Ryuuki was used to it. Heck, he even helped out with some of these things, so he wouldn't have been surprised much), the subject was changed to Liliana.

"I have to say, Lady Liliana, it is hard to think that you aren't of noble birth. Your mannerisms and disposition suggests otherwise. Oh, no disrespect intended, Sir Lloyd," Lucia quickly added, looking a bit worried that she might have offended to young man.

"Nah, it's all right. Liliana here is practically nobility from where we come from, anyway," Lloyd didn't seem to be bothered at all. If anything, being treated like some guest made him feel rather out-of-place.

"Practically nobility?" Elincia inquired.

Liliana's father was the head of the Julii Conglomerate, a powerful family that held much influence over several aspects of society, whether it be political, agricultural, scientific, or environmental matters. The family is supposedly descended from the famed Julii family of Rome, adding further depth to the family background. Liliana, being the sole child of the head of the Conglomerate, had been raised like a virtual princess. As a result, she had frequent interaction with other members of the upper socio-economic class that had naturally led to her developing a very lady-like disposition. This, combined with her inherent kind and caring personality, had more or less made her the beloved princess at school as well. One of the unfortunate consequences of this was that Ryuuki had to keep a little distance between them while at school, since the guys would be out for his blood if they found him being too friendly with her, their fear of his martial prowess all but forgotten. The only male who was "safe" from this was Willis, who was one of Liliana's friends from the upper-class. The guys at school let him slide since it was only natural for the adored angel of the school to look after the frail boy. That and, well, he was from the upper-class too.

"I see, so in your homeland, your standing in society is determined by your financial standing," Lucia surmised.

"Ideally, there shouldn't be any class division, but that is the reality. As a small portion of the country succeeds and grows prosperous, the opportunity available for the rest of the society can't help but dwindle," Liliana said sadly. That was just life, the way capitalist economy worked, for better or worse.

"Still, that is a wonderful idea, a land of equality…" Elincia thought to herself.

As that came to a close, the conversation shifted to, of course, the currently absent young man.

"So, I understand that Sir Ryuuki is descended from a family to the east of your homeland?" Geoffrey spoke up. Although Ryuuki had requested that he drop the title and formality, he just felt more comfortable addressing others like so.

"Yes, his parents were originally from an eastern country called Japan. They moved to the States some time ago, where Ryuuki and his sister were born," Liliana explained.

"Sister? Oh, that's right, I do recall him lapsing into depression the moment he remembered her," Lucia recounted the moment when Ryuuki slumped onto his seat as if all the life in him had been drained away.

"Well, he is a tad bit overprotective of Ryuuri," Liliana couldn't help but smile a bit.

"Sounds like someone I know," Lucia said, glancing at Geoffrey.

"I, I'm not THAT overprotective! …am I?" everyone present laughed at Geoffrey's poor attempt to defend himself.

"Well, I'll admit that Sir Ryuuki's reactions seem a lot more severe than yours, brother," Lucia managed to speak through the laughter.

"A-anyway, I must say, however, that Sir Ryuuki is a fine young man," Geoffrey began as he attempted to change the subject, "his martial prowess, his mannerisms, and from what I could tell, his intellectual abilities are all superb. His parents must be quite proud of him."

At this, both Lloyd and Liliana's faces darkened, and they fell dead silent.

"Did I… say something wrong?" Geoffrey asked uncomfortably, since his last comment seemed to have dropped this awkward silence on them.

"Oh, i-it's nothing!" Lloyd instantly chirped up, trying to cover up that moment of gloom, "Oh yeah, they're proud of him all right! How can they not be? Ha, ahahahaha!"

All Liliana could manage was a rather strained smile. Ryuuki's family was a taboo subject for everyone who knew him. Due to the gravity of the matter, anyone who found out about it eventually became overcome by a sense of loss and grief whenever it was mentioned, and Liliana, who had met his parents personally, was no exception.

In a desperate attempt to do away with the awkward atmosphere, Lloyd began to grasp at some random topic that might sound interesting. The first thing that came to his mind, of all things, was the exchange between Felix and Liliana right before the trip to the ruins.

"O-oh yeah, by the way, Liliana, what were you two doing that day anyway?" Lloyd blurted out without thinking.

"Pardon?" Liliana looked completely puzzled.

"You know, a few weeks back? I was on the way to Ryu's house to ask him to help me out on one of my projects, but then I saw you running off with him somewhere," now that he thought about it, that WAS strange. Looking back at what happened so far today, he had to ask. Since when were those two this close a friend?

For the second time, the memory of that incident turned Liliana's face into a brilliant scarlet hue.

"N-nothing, I-I just… had something to ask him about, yes, a simple question!" she stuttered, real fast, a complete contrast of her usual calm composure.

Lloyd wasn't one to miss this strange shift in behavior.

"Ho ho? Could there be something going on here, I wonder?" he pressed with a sly grin on his face. Liliana froze, not at all liking the impish quality in Lloyd's tone. "You wouldn't normally take someone to an isolated place to say something. Well, there are a few things, I suppose, like, say… a confession?"

"My, Lady Liliana, could it be that…" Liliana dreaded the words that she was sure Elincia was about to mutter.

"you and Lord Ryuuki are…" she never got to finish that sentence.

"N-no! We're friends! J-just friends s-since childhood! Y-yes, that's right, friends!"

The group burst into laughter over the little lady's totally out-of-character moment. It seems that they have begun appreciate the amusement that Ryuuki felt whenever Liliana behaved out-of-character.

* * *

Chef Colette: Kieran is always amusing to have around, yeah?

Blue Orbi Angel: There will be hintings on OC & OC pairings, yes. You're right, Lloyd is essentially the comic relief for the beginning, though he gets his own significant role later on.

ANBU are Sexy: Ah, I see. Haha, he hasn't read or watched Naruto for years, actually. We did look into it back then, though.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I own nothing…

**Chapter 6: The Attack**

It has been 3 days since the memorable encounter between the Crimeans and the three students. Each day was spent mostly talking for hours on end, the wealth of subjects to discuss seemingly unending. At one time, Ryuuki heard Geoffrey mentioning to Elincia if they should tell her father what had happened, which Elincia decided to leave off for a little while longer.

During this time, Ryuuki's injuries from the first day's duel had recovered completely as well. When his friends asked him about his inhuman speed that day, Ryuuki pointed out that the gravity here seemed weaker than it was in their place. Now that they took a moment to contemplate it, they realized that it did feel lighter here compared to back in the States. This, for better of worse, gave them a bit of an idea as to just where they might be. If the gravity was this different, in fact, it almost felt like half of the usual strength, then it would make sense that this wasn't America, or maybe even Earth, as ludicrous as that last notion sounded. At any rate, the secret behind Ryuuki's insane burst of speed turned out to be a combination of the weaker gravity, his innate agility, and the training weights he used (which currently weighed about 20 pounds per band, which made it 80 pounds total weight on him at all times, plus whatever he carries around with him, which is usually a LOT of stuff).

It was early in the morning. Elincia and Lucia had gone out for the day for whatever reason, while Geoffrey was out on his routine patrol. Ryuuki was out on the front porch, reading one of the books he picked out in the mansion's library, when Liliana walked up to him, a tray of tea set in hand.

"Oh, thanks, Liliana," Ryuuki said gratefully as he put his book aside and took a sip of his tea.

"Your welcome," she replied a she sat down across from him, picking up her own cup. It's been a while since the two of them had some alone time to talk. In fact, they haven't really sat down and chatted like this since on one of her birthdays as a child. The day before his parents died suddenly, and he moved to a different school nearby Granny's house. It was a pleasant surprise when the new manor she moved into turned out to be in the same town where he was living in.

"What's Lloyd up to? Ryuuki asked.

"Still sleeping. I think he was up all night working on his inventions."

"Inventions, eh?" Ryuuki mused as he twirled a bit of hair to his side. Liliana inadvertently giggled a bit.

"What? Did something happen?"

"No, it's just that, you haven't changed much, have you?" Seeing as how he seemed completely lost, she began to explain, "You always used to twirl your hair like that."

"Oh," he stopped messing with is hair, which wasn't tied back today, "I guess old habits die hard."

"Not only that, you still tap your fingers against the armrest of the chair while reading, and you still tend to walk with your left hand in your pocket," Ryuuki was taken aback.

"I'm surprised you noticed all that since back then, I never realized it myself."

"Well, it's your own habit, so that's no surprise." Ryuuki scratched his head, which was in itself a habit that popped up whenever he felt embarrassed.

"On the other hand, you've changed quite a bit, haven't you, Lily?" he suddenly changed the subject, taking her by surprise. On top of that, it has been a long time since she last heard him call her by that childhood nickname, which had that "R" sound instead of the "L" since he was pronouncing it in "Engrish" on purpose (Ririi).

"Have I?"

"I remember a little, shy girl who kept hiding behind her father whenever a stranger tried to talk to her," Ryuuki answered with a slightly mischievous grin.

"W-well, I was a little child back then, it couldn't be helped," she countered, looking slightly embarrassed. Had she been THAT shy and childish?

"Oh, and you would always fidget by a pool's side until I dragged you in."

"Need I remind you that I did have a rather unpleasant experience at the sea?" she was beginning to pout. Should he tease her a bit further, or back off? Nah, this was getting good, might as well go a bit further. Something about her reactions tended to bring out the little mischievous imp in him for whatever reason.

"If I remember correctly, there was that one time when Ryuuri and I were staying over at your place, you got scared from the thunder that night and snuck into my our room. Remember Mr. Julius started panicking when he found out you weren't in your room? He almost called in the state police!" he chuckled at the memory, only to realize that Liliana wasn't saying anything this time. Oh crap, did he push her a bit too far? "Uh… Lily?"

Liliana's face had gone redder than ever before. The memory of that night was very clear to her as well. The thunderstorm that night had indeed scared her, but for whatever reason, she found herself in Ryuuki and Ryuuri's room instead of her parents like usual. Being 9, 10 year-old children, the three of them had no trouble fitting into the gigantic bed. The main problem here wasn't the fact that she caused the whole house to go into red alert. The issue was what happened during the night. Ryuuri was sleeping on the left side of the bed, with Ryuuki in the middle, and herself on the right side. Unfortunately, she didn't realize that Ryuuki, as a child, used to have a habit of sleeping on his right side, while tightly hugging whatever happened to lay there (usually a pillow, or Ryuuri, who coincidentally would lay to her left and curl up, fitting perfectly into Ryuuki's "hug"). He himself had been completely oblivious to this, since he would let go of the object and lay on his back before he woke up a few minutes later.

As it happens, the "thing" to his right that night happened to be her. Imagine her surprise when she found herself in his embrace. That would have been fine still, but the REAL issue was what happened afterwards. She ended up looking into his face at the worst possible time: the moment he would snuggle closer to the object (usually the pillow). As a result, her first kiss was taken by someone sound asleep and would never find out about it. Once he was locked into that position, he could not be made to budge an inch. Poor, red-faced Liliana was stuck with her lips locked to his throughout the night until he finally rolled over on his back before waking up. Needless to say, she didn't get a wink of sleep that night. Sure, they may have been kids, but at 10, it wasn't that odd of an age for some of them to be aware of the other gender. However Ryuuki was, and always had been, rather dense when it came to that particular subject, hence his complete obliviousness towards the numerous female admirers he had at school.

"Did I… say something bad?" Ryuuki was starting to get worried. Sure, it was fun pushing her buttons, but he always made sure he didn't push the wrong ones that would hurt her in anyway. But for the life of him he could not figure out what she was so flustered over. Did something else happen that night that was causing her to be dead silent like this? As he was pondering over these things, Liliana finally looked up at his face, her face still looking like it was on fire.

"A-about that night-" She was interrupted by a strange sound that came from a distance. It sounded like a roar of some animal. The two of them stopped talking and strained their ears to hear it again. A moment later, it came again. Yup, definitely a roar.

The two of them stayed silent for a while, wondering what that roar could have been. Feeling uneasy, Ryuuki got up and was about to go check it out a bit closer to the main castle complex (he knew that he was supposed to stay within the mansion's boundary, but that didn't seem important just then) when the familiar sound of horses came rushing towards them.

Ryuuki was about to greet the knights when he noticed something was wrong. Geoffrey had a grim, almost panicky look on his face. Ryuuki was alarmed that even Kieran, who had always seemed to be unfazed by anything, sporting a dark expression as well. Behind them was Lucia, who was supporting an extremely pale and shaken Elincia, who had visible streaks of tears on her cheeks. He also noticed that a few of the other knights were missing while others were sporting minor injuries. To top it off, he could feel the anxiety and uneasiness of the knights permeating the air, his strange abilities kicking in again.

"What happened, Sir Geoffrey?" Ryuuki asked as the knight dismounted in a hurry.

"We're under attack by Daein! We need to get out of here, fast!"

* * *

The usually quiet mansion was in an uproar. The servants were dashing left and right packing and moving things, Geoffrey was issuing orders to his men, Lloyd was gathering up all this tools, and Liliana was helping anyone with whatever she could. Ryuuki, meanwhile, had joined the group with Geoffrey.

"We are to make way to the Kingdom of Gallia. Daein's troops are probably all over the place already, but if we dawdle too long we will definitely end up getting swarmed," he turned to the elite guards with a grim yet determined look on his face, "this is it men, time to prove your honor and loyalty as knights, for the princess!"

The guards raised their weapons with a roar. Meanwhile, Ryuuki was trying to digest what he just heard. Princess? Could it be...? Now that he thought about it, the mansion WAS surrounded by high stone walls, which suggested that it was part of a larger castle complex. But then why was it so bereft of activity and visitors? Not to mention that a relatively large portion of the castle surrounding the mansion seemed deserted as well. He kept pondering all this fact as he followed Geoffrey to the armory after the short briefing.

"I can't believe Daein would invade, and without a declaration too! The cowardly, brutish lot, they haven't a shred of honor!" Geoffrey continued to curse the Daein loudly as he pulled out a fresh silver lance and packed some elixirs into his utility pouch.

"Sir Geoffrey..." Ryuuki spoke up, taking Geoffrey by surprise.

"Oh, si-, Ryuuki," Geoffrey caught himself before saying 'sir'.

"So, Lady Elincia is actually a princess?" Geoffrey stood silent for a moment, before nodding solemnly.

"I suppose there's no point in hiding it now. Yes, she is the sole daughter of our King Ramon. She has been staying here due to… political reasons," Geoffrey trailed off, not sure if he should continue explaining.

"It's Lord Renning, isn't it?" Needless to say, the knight was shocked upon hearing the youth's words.

"L-lord Renning?" Geoffrey tried to play dumb. Unfortunately, being straight as an arrow, he never had much luck trying to deceive anyone.

"According to the official story you told us, King Ramon has no children, and thus Lord Renning was declared successor to the throne." Geoffrey remained silent. This child couldn't have… could he?

"However, some time after the declaration, King Ramon finally had a child of his own. Unfortunately, due to the timing of the child's birth, her existence could serve as a potential source of succession conflict. As a result, her birth was kept a secret except to a select few, and she was kept in secret away from the public's eye," Ryuuki wrapped up his conjecture smoothly, "am I wrong?"

Geoffrey was dumbfounded. Sure, he had gotten the feeling that Ryuuki was a bright, intelligent young man, but to see through the royal family's secret so easily in such a short amount of time… His power of observation and deduction, along with his logical reasoning, were simply unbelievable. Why, his political insight might be on par with Count Bastian, even.

"You never cease to amaze me, you know that?"

"I see…" was all the black-haired youth said as his suspicions were confirmed.

"In any case, it's much too dangerous to stay with us, we'll probably be hounded incessantly. I advise that you join the refugees through the side path leading out of the city, I'm sure that someone will send a unit to lead you all to safety. Lord Renning will definitely prevent the Daein troops from breaking through the front," Geoffrey finished as he filled the quiver on his horse with as much arrows as he could manage. He certainly did not expect the youth besides him to pull out what looked like a steel pole and begin his usual warm-up routine. "Ryuuki?"

"So, when are we leaving?" Geoffrey turned around to see the other two guests standing there, Lloyd being slightly out of breath from lugging his bag around by himself.

"What do you mean, Lady Liliana?"

"She means exactly what she said, when are we leaving?" Lloyd managed to gasp.

"Wait, you don't… You _can't_ be thinking about coming with us?" now this was a shock for the knight.

"Sure we can, unless you think we're going to be a bother," Ryuuki replied with a grin, finishing up his quick warm-up and pulling out some medicine from the shelves.

Geoffrey was at a lost for words. Sure, Ryuuki's skills were prodigious. But he was a guest, with no ties to this madness whatsoever! Moreover, he could tell from the duel between them and the visitors' tales regarding their world that the boy had never fought in a real battle in his life. Will he really be okay in a real war? He was about to protest when Kieran came running into the armory.

"Sir! We'd better get moving immediately! The Daein dogs have the side path blockaded! They're even attacking the refugees! We'll be caught in a pincer at this rate!" Geoffrey froze. Well, at least that spared him from having to come up with another excuse. If the Daein troops were coming in from the side path as well as the front, then the only way out was through them either way. He made his decision.

"Very well, but you will follow my orders as a soldier, understood?" Ryuuki responded with a crisp, if somewhat awkward, salute.


	7. Chapter 7

_Nyah, this is Arcaile63 speaking/typing. The updates may have seen a bit irregular as of late (lazy sister not uploading, *cough*), but oh well, such is life. About this fic (I realize that I should have said these things way back in the FIRST chapter, but I'm lazy too, so... yeah), I'm trying to make it as OC-centric as possible to avoid another "self-insert" fic that is basically a carbon-copy of the original script. If stuff seems to be proceeding slowly or just looks plain odd... bear with it please... Anyway, moving on..._

_erinilliana: Please bear with his deplorable grammar. It stinks._

_Arcaile63: Shush, you fool! You're the one getting Cs!_

_erinilliana: Correction: C+. Close to a B-. C:_

_Arcaile63:... *ignores* Oh, before I forget... _**_Disclaimer: I own nothing…_**

**Chapter 7: Drawing First Blood**

The plains a good distance away from the castle was filled with figures clad in gleaming ebon armor, weapons at the ready as they continued to march up a hill.

"That Sub-human lover had a daughter, eh? Imagine that," the commander mused as he led the march, "who wants to bet that she's a branded?"

Some of the soldiers began laughing. Knowing Crimea's King Ramon's ridiculous attempt at befriending those beasts, why not?

Their laughter was cut off when the heard the sound of hooves from up ahead.

"All right, here they come, slaughter them like the dogs they are!" the Daein commander roared as he drew his sword.

* * *

"Damn, looks like they were ready for us," Geoffrey said darkly as he saw the black hoard charge up towards them. Turning to his men, the paladin bellowed, "For honor! For Crimea!"

The riders instantly charged down. Ryuuki was right up front at Geoffrey's right, with Kieran on the paladin's left. The soldiers awaiting them were mostly spearmen. As Ryuuki recalled, spearmen were bad news for riders. He urged his mount faster so that he went a bit ahead of the group.

"What are you doing? Slow down!" Geoffrey bellowed. Did the kid have death wish, charging into a spear wall all alone like that?

Ryuuki didn't slow down. As he got closer to the line of spears before him, he pulled out arrow with a small vial attached to it. Lloyd wouldn't tell him what the content was, but said that the moment it came into contact with oxygen, he should expect a little firework. Gritting his teeth, Ryuuki released his hold on the reins completely and aimed with his bow, trying to mimic what he saw during Eudice's archery practice. This was his first time using this thing. Hopefully he won't screw up too bad. Luckily for him, the shot turned out to be quite clean, heading straight into the middle of the soldier's formation.

'You call that _little_?' Ryuuki mentally yelled at Lloyd as he desperately jerked the reign to the side, guiding his horse away from the explosion that burned a huge hole in the Daein troops' formation, roasting about 30 of them in an instant. The panicked soldiers began to scatter away from the site of the explosion. Bad mistake. Taking full advantage of the break in the spear wall formation, Geoffrey's cavalry promptly tore into Daein's lines, trampling and hacking all the way. After cleaning up the last of them, Geoffrey rode up to Ryuuki, who was coming down with the carriage that was following them from behind.

"That was quite a display," Geoffrey said as he pulled to a stop before the younger male, "but don't you EVER pull a stunt like that again without informing me first! What if something went wrong?"

Ryuuki flinched. He knew that what he did on a whim was quite reckless. If he had been a second late in pulling his horse aside, he could've been burned alive along with the Daein troops. Not only that, had he failed in shooting the arrow correctly, he could have been skewered by those spears or have been blasted by the explosion himself.

"I'm sorry."

Geoffrey sighed, then relaxed a bit, patting Ryuuki on the shoulder, "That being said, you did save many of us, you have my thanks."

"You should thank Lloyd, it was his idea."

"That I will, once we get out of here." Geoffrey smiled as he turned around and rode back to the front. He failed to notice that Ryuuki was trembling, sweat covering his face. He had to exert a great deal of self-control not to hurl up the contents of his stomach right then and there…

* * *

Unfortunately for the Crimean knights, the roads were already swarming with Daein troops, hell bent on seizing their prey: the princess. Geoffrey fought on valiantly, slashing and stabbing left and right without rest. Kieran followed right behind him, driving his steel axe into any Daein troops that dared to get close to him. Alas, their numbers were far too great, and some of the enemies began to slip past the knights to charge at the carriage.

"The carriage! Protect the carriage at all costs!" Geoffrey hollered as he tried to make his way to the carriage, but could barely move an inch due to the sea of swords and spears surrounding him. All he could do, as he continued to cut apart the Daein soldiers left and right, was put his faith in Ryuuki, who he saw riding back to the carriage,

Ryuuki made his way towards the rear, chasing down and knocking out anyone who attempted to rush past the main force and assault the carriage directly. Unfortunately, there was one serious handicap working against him. His weapon was a steel pole. Yes, it can still break a bone or two, and maybe knock a few people into dreamland, but the fact remained that it was largely incapable of killing anyone unless he drove the tip into their eye or something. Try as he might, he just couldn't bring himself to kill anyone. That episode with the fireball had really taken a toll on him. He had never planned on using that vial, which was why he didn't tell Geoffrey about it. However, if they had kept charging as it was, many of the knights would have wound up skewered like teriyaki chicken on a stick. But that didn't change one fact: he had taken a life. Not just _a_ life, but tens of them in one fell swoop. Had Geoffrey been nearby, he would have been able to tell that Ryuuki's movements seemed rather dull, and that his coordination was off. The youth's reluctance at taking any more lives, combined with his weapon, was seriously hindering his fighting ability. Unfortunately for him, the Daein troops had no such concern. To them, he was just another enemy, only good when dead.

Ryuuki quickly parried a thrust from one of the enemy rider's lance. Taking advantage of the rider's lost balance, he quickly jabbed him straight in the stomach, effectively shoving the soldier off the horse. Letting out a sigh of relief, he was about to turn when the horse suddenly reared up, causing him to fall off of it. Grunting in pain as he got up, Ryuuki found out what had happened. The rider he had just knocked off managed to get back up and had stabbed his horse. Cursing his luck, Ryuuki got ready for battle… only find out that his weapon lay about 10 feet away on the other side of his dead horse. Sneering, the Daein soldier lunged with his lance. Ryuuki deftly dodged to the side. Just as the spear tip passed him by, he grabbed the spear with his gloved hands, and pulled hard. The sudden added forced caused his foe to lose his balance and stagger forward, where Ryuuki promptly delivered a jump kick up his chin. After making sure that the soldier was knocked out for real this time, Ryuuki was about to retrieve his steel pole when he realized that several of the Daein troops were converging on the carriage. The rear guards were nearly exterminated, overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemy troops.

That meant that Elinica and the others were utterly helpless!

Ryuuki immediately ripped off his training bands and picked up a discarded steel sword that lay by his feet. This was no time to be a humanitarian! Once again, he dashed off at an inhuman speed, reaching the first Daein troop in no time at all. Using his momentum, he delivered a strong drop kick to the soldier's back. At the speed he was charging in, the soldier might as well have been hit by a charging bull, as he was sent flying forward, crashing into the foremost soldier who was within inches of the now-defenseless carriage. The rest of the troops turned around to deal with the sudden threat, but was puzzled to find no one behind them at first. Then another soldier screamed as a sword pierced his heart from behind. Finally locating the assailant, the soldiers leveled their spears and charged as a unit, only to be baffled as what appeared to be a kid suddenly materialized over their heads and deliver a devastating axe kick at the soldier in the middle, followed up by a hand-stand kick that sent the soldiers lined up in a spear wall tumbling either way.

Cursing at the top of their lungs, the soldiers got back up and began to charge wildly. None of them managed to score a hit as the boy dashed in and out of their midst, slicing and dicing someone each time he had a chance.

At last, Ryuuki managed to dispatch the last Daein troop nearby. Breathing heavily, he looked towards the frontline. To his utter dismay, all he saw was a mass of black. Had the rest of the Crimean knights fallen? Geoffrey? And what about Kieran? He was snapped out of his daze by the sight of the incoming troops. Left with no other options, he decided to do what any sane human being would do in a situation like this: get the hell out of here.

"Everyone, get out, we need to get out of here, NOW!" Ryuuki yelled as he tore open the carriage door in his haste.

"Du-dude, what's going on?" Lloyd was sweating profusely all over, leaning over some sort of contraption. He had heard the screams of the knights outside as they had fallen to the Daein troops earlier. That couldn't be a good sign, now can it?

"I said MOVE! We're screwed if we dawdle any longer!" Everyone flinched. None of them had seen Ryuuki this agitated before, let alone raise his voice like he just did. Making matters worse was the fact that his face and clothes were splattered with blood. The bloody sword clenched tightly in his hands did not make things any better.

All three of them stared at the oncoming horde in disbelief as they climbed out of the carriage. What happened to all those valiant knights? Was Ryuuki the last one left?

"Quickly, to the forest!" Ryuuki urged the group to the forest nearby. Using the woods was the only way out of this mess this point. He was about to follow the women when he noticed that Lloyd was tinkering with something back in the carriage.

"Lloyd! Get over here, right now!" Ryuuki was positively livid at this point.

"Hold on, man! I'm almost done here!" Lloyd hollered back, then jumped out of the carriage, "All right, that should do the trick."

He made his way to the horse that had been pulling the carriage, "Sorry about this…" then slapped it hard before joining the rest of his group.

The horse began charging straight at the Daein troops ahead. Screaming in alarm, the soldiers dived of to the side in order to avoid being trampled over, until some of the spearmen managed to kill the rampaging beast with a few well placed javelin shots. Once it was dead for good, the soldiers began crowding around the carriage to check if anyone was inside. It was completely devoid of life. Instead, they were greeted by a sudden flash of light…


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I own nothing…

**Chapter 8: "I Killed Them…"**

"Right about… now" Lloyd looked down at his digital watch. Sure enough, the sound of a loud explosion filled the air… from the direction the carriage went charging.

"That should buy us some time…" Lloyd muttered darkly, hefting his bag, which seemed considerably lighter than before.

The group trudged through the woods for a good time, until they could go no farther and decided to take a rest at a small clearing.

For a while nobody said anything. However, Lloyd and the women kept shooting glances at Ryuuki. He was a complete mess, slouched over on a tree stump with his head between his hands. His bloodied sword lay discarded on the ground. Then he slowly got up, his eyes looking strangely hollow. He proceeded to slowly drag his feet towards a nearby tree. At first he simply stared at it. Then all of a sudden he began pounding it with his fists.

"_Chikushou! Chikushou! Chikushou! Chikushooooooou!"_

Lloyd and Elincia were startled at the Ryuuki's behavior. Neither of them had seem him act this way before. On the other hand, Liliana looked as if she had just remembered something unpleasant. The only other time he had acted this way was on the day his parents died. He had silently left the hospital his parents were in when they died. Having been the only one who had noticed him leaving, she had secretly followed him. He headed down to the beach nearby, and began pounding on the sand, screaming like he was doing now. When the day for the funeral came, he looked like a corpse himself, with a black look in his eyes, no energy, and not saying a word the whole time. She had never wanted to see him like that again.

"_Boku no… Boku no te de…"_

Liliana cautiously approached him and tried to say something, but couldn't find the words. What could she say? That they had no choice? That it was the right thing to do? That it was the Daein who had attacked in the first place?

"_Shinda… hito ga… shinjatta… boku ga… __koroshitta__…"_

Liliana tentatively placed one hand on his shoulder. He jumped as if someone had tried to electrocute him. He turned around slowly, then immediately averted his gaze towards the ground upon seeing his childhood friend.

"I… killed them…" he said simply. Liliana could still say nothing.

"It was… so… easy…" she could feel his starting to shake. The other two had come up behind her, looks of concern on their faces.

"A flick of the wrist… all it took… I…" Tears began rolling down his cheek.

Still, she could not find anything to say to comfort him. Instead, she wrapped her arms around him, patting him on the head with one hand. That did it. He simply broke down, falling onto his knees and sobbing, clutching onto her as if she was the last link between life and death.

"I… I could feel it…" he continued in between his sobs and hiccups, so quietly that only Liliana could hear him, "Right before… they died… I saw… they were thinking... about their… families… their friends…"

"Shh….." That was all she could say. Words wouldn't do him any good. Best to let him just cry it all out.

Lloyd led Elincia away from the two. They should leave him alone for now. He wasn't Ryuuki's best friend since middle school for nothing. He was very well aware how his friend was like. Despite his cool exterior and prodigious talents, his emotions were ridiculously fragile. Perhaps the ongoing tragedy in his life had been the cause. Whatever the reason, Lloyd knew that Ryuuki was simply too empathetic. Whenever someone was feeling sad over a tragedy, be it a friend or a total stranger, he would often break down and shed tears as well. In fact, sometimes he thought that Ryuuki _became_ that other person. It was almost as if he was the one who was suffering the loss himself.

Sure, he had just killed his share of people with his explosives, and he sure as hell didn't feel _good_ about it. But what could he do? They would have died otherwise! But, knowing Ryuuki, he was probably feeling the despair and grief of all those he had just killed a few hours ago. This might sound terrible, but Lloyd was sometimes glad that he wasn't like his friend. He wasn't sure that he would be able to handle the mental trauma.

* * *

It took another good 15 minutes or so before Ryuuki finally calmed down enough to sit down and talk straight. Lloyd had been staring at his radar the whole time, looking out for any sign of human beings approaching.

"Anything?" Ryuuki spoke up, his voice still somewhat weak.

"Nope, nothing" Lloyd replied as he looked up, "you feeling all right man?"

"Yeah… sorry about that…" Ryuuki returned a weak smile. He was still a mess, but at least his eyes were no longer lightless, hollow orbs, "By the way, how'd you manage to haul that bag of yours all this way?"

"Oh, this?" Lloyd turned to the bag in question. "Gravity's weaker, so it's not that bad. That, and the fact that I just got rid of the main load."

"Main load?" Ryuuki tried to recall the contents of that bag, when his eyes widened, "wait, you don't mean…"

"Well, that's the problem I've been having," Lloyd continued as if nothing major really happened, "it has no trouble amplifying the power, you see. It's just that all of it comes out at once and in all direction. No stability whatsoever. So, I just rigged it to activate in a minute, which blew up the whole thing."

"Sorry, Lloyd…" Ryuuki said apologetically.

"Nah, its fine. Think of it as a test run. I'll just whip up another, better model next time. Besides, if I had been lugging that thing around, there was no way that I could have run this far. While we're at the subject, why don't you start carrying your own bag, eh?" Lloyd pointed at the strap that was slung across his shoulder. He had somehow managed to lug Ryuuki's bag full of books all this way as well.

Before Ryuuki could reply, the radar began beeping. Lloyd hastily checked the display. It was picking up life signs, lots of them.

"Aw, crap. Now what?" Lloyd muttered exasperatedly.

"Lloyd, take the others and go on ahead," Ryuuki got up and picked up his sword.

"You're kidding, right?" Liliana couldn't believe what she just heard.

"Go, now."

"Wait, My Lord Ryuuki, you can't be serious…" Now Elincia tried to stop him as well, but to no avail. As he turned towards them, they were surprised to see him with a small smile.

"I'll be right behind you, don't worry," then he charged forward.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I own nothing…

**Chapter 9: Dire Circumstances**

It was ugly business, without a doubt, Ryuuki thought to himself as his blade cut deep into a Daein troop. Without pause, he immediately spun around, parrying the attack from a soldier behind him. Using the force of the impact to add to his momentum, he spun the other way around, slicing clean across the soldier's neck. There it was again, a vision of fear, thoughts of loved ones, happy and sad memories, all flooding into him the moment of the kill. However, it seemed like that sob-session earlier had an effect, for better or worse. Sure, he still felt bad each time he snuffed the life out of someone, but at least he wasn't twitching and convulsing each time now.

One of troops rushed forward, spear in hand, intent on skewering the punk. The Daein soldier's jaws dropped as the boy jumped inhumanly high, landing on one of the thicker tree branches behind him. Then he proceeded to dash around the trees. It was just like the final moments of his duel with Geoffrey, only this time, the vertical tree trunks provided him with something to push off from, so he could move around at high speed much more easily. The moment the soldiers became disorganized and crash into each other trying to pinpoint his movements, Ryuuki struck. He dived for one of the soldiers who had his back to him, sending him flying with a flying kick. Jumping off the soldier's back at the moment of impact, he back-flipped over and landed behind another soldier, slashing him in the back before he had a chance to turn around.

Ryuuki was about to turn around to face his next opponent, when he felt a sharp pain in his head. Not missing this momentary lapse in concentration, the two remaining myrmidons instantly lunged with their swords. Ryuuki managed to knock aside one of the attacks despite his hazy vision from the pain, but the other sword grazed his right side. Grunting from the new pain, which at least banished the one in his head, Ryuuki pulled away as quickly as he could. His fatigue, along with his now bleeding wound, was starting to seriously hinder his performance.

Had anyone bothered to compare his movement from before to what it was now, they would've noticed quite clearly that he was slowing down. Even at his high-speed dashes, the Daein soldiers could actually see him rather distinctly. The only reason the last charge succeeded was due to the advantageous footing provided by the wall of trees. Part of his trembling back at the clearing was not due to mental stress, as Liliana and the others had thought. His body was reaching its limit too. Not only had he been fighting virtually by himself for hours, he had used his burst-speed 2 times already.

The two swordsmen spread out as they began to charge him. Trying to ignore the throbbing pain in his side, Ryuuki dashed out to meet the one to his right. At the last minute, however, he kicked off to the left, leaving the myrmidon he had just been facing to lunge out wildly. Meanwhile, the other one was startled at the sudden change in direction, and took a quick swing across. Ryuuki dived underneath the swing and reversed the grip on his sword, pivoting off to his right, cutting the hapless myrmidon right through his stomach in the process. Screaming in rage, the last remaining swordsman charged, sword raised high above his head. Keeping his sword in reverse-grip, Ryuuki swung, meeting the myrmidon's blade. At the moment of impact, Ryuuki jumped, used the locked swords as leverage and leapt yet again, kicking his opponent hard across the face. The myrmidon went flying head-first into the thick tree trunk and dropped onto the ground, unconscious.

Ryuuki fell onto the ground himself, gasping for breath. He reached into his pouch and took out the last vulnerary that remained. Grimacing at the pain, he applied the salve to the wound at his side. Fortunately for him, the cut had been shallow. As he was about to head back to the rest of the group, he heard a scream that made his blood freeze. It was a female's, from the direction he had come from. It appears that the rest of the group had run into trouble up ahead. Cursing the bad luck that seemed to be plaguing them today, Ryuuki squeezed out what remained of his energy to perform another burst-speed, although his velocity was nowhere near what it had been back during his duel with Geoffrey, not to mention his muscles began to scream in protest.

He arrived at the edge of the forest just in time to see a man clad in thick ebon armor bring his javelin down on Lloyd, who was trying to shield the two women. Screaming bloody murder, Ryuuki rushed towards the armored knight and swung hard with his sword. The man merely smirked as, to Ryuuki's horror, the sword shattered upon impact, leaving not so much as a scratch on the armor. Before he could recover from the shock, Ryuuki was greeted with a fist to his face, sending him reeling back.

"Hmph, you have guts to oppose us, brat, I'll give you that much," the armored man, who seemed to be the leader of the Daein troops present, sneered as he looked down at Ryuuki, who was dragging himself off the ground. Glancing back, he was relieved to find that Lloyd was still alive, being supported by Liliana and Elincia. But if they didn't do something about this current predicament they were in, that will change all too soon. Ryuuki considered his options. His weapon just broke, he was exhausted, and there were three non-combatants with him, one of them injured, and in front of him stood a man who was probably an enemy officer, not a mere grunt soldier. It did not look good at all.

Just as it looked like the end, Lloyd suddenly hollered, "Ryu, eyes! Flash bomb!"

Instinctively, Ryuuki shut his eyes tight. A bright, white light flashed through his closed eyelids. He could hear the soldiers' screaming in pain as the light blinded them.

"Now!" Ryuuki opened his eyes as Lloyd yelled. Liliana and Elincia had had their eyes closed as well, upon Lloyd's whispered instruction. He had no idea where his friend got a flash bomb, but that was of little importance right now. He directed the three out of the forest. Unfortunately, as he turned to leave as well, a searing pain tore through his left shoulder. Gasping at the pain, he staggered to the floor. Glancing towards his shoulder, he saw the source of his pain: a javelin that was firmly embedded in his flesh. That armored knight had one eye barely open, just enough to make out the boy's silhouette despite the pain his eyes were experiencing. Gritting his teeth, he continued to stagger off, since he couldn't reach back far enough to take it out right then and there.

As if that wasn't enough, the group ended up stepping on a weak surface near the edge of the forest. The ground crumbled and the three that had been running on ahead ended up tripping and rolling down the rather steep slope. Ryuuki, who had been lagging behind due to the javelin sticking out behind his shoulder, managed to slide down more gently. Liliana and Lloyd had suffered a few minor scratches and bruises from the roll down, but Elincia had hit her head on one of the outcroppings of earth, which had knocked her out. Not being able to afford even a second, Ryuuki and Lloyd picked up the princess and quickly moved onto the woods across them. As they ran across the road, Ryuuki was surprised to see corpses all over the place. Most of them wore black armors, but he made out the white armor of Crimean troops here and there. Mentally letting out a sigh of relief, since he didn't see either Geoffrey's green or Kieran's red armor amongst them, he trudged on, and was soon swallowed up by the dark shadows of the woods.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I own nothing…

**Chapter 10: Mercenaries and a Familiar Face**

"D-dude, I can't move another inch…" Lloyd said weakly as he collapsed onto the forest ground, pressing a hand against the gash across his chest.

They had barely covered any distance from the edge of the thicket. As much as Ryuuki wanted to keep moving, his own body wouldn't listen. He set Elincia down on a relatively tall set of grass in order to conceal her as much as possible, then joined Lloyd as he fell to the ground as well, clutching his throbbing shoulder.

"Here, let me help with that," Lloyd offered as he pulled himself up with some difficulty, and grabbed the javelin. Ryuuki seriously doubted that his friend had enough strength to pull the piece of metal out of him. Noticing Lloyd's shaky hands, Liliana came up and placed her hand on the javelin as well. The two of them traded glances, then nodded at each other. Time to pull this thing out.

"This is gonna hurt bad, hang in there man."

Ryuuki had to clench his teeth hard in order to not scream. The pain was so incredible that he half-wished he would just pass out. As Liliana and Lloyd gave a final tug, the piece of metal finally came out of Ryuuki's shoulder, which was now bleeding freely. Ryuuki fell face-first onto the ground, twitching from the combination of pain and fatigue. At least he was granted sweet unconsciousness, sparing him from feeling any further pain.

"We gotta patch this up, quick," Lloyd pulled out the vulnerary sack from Ryuuki's pouch. It was empty.

"Damn it!" he cursed as quietly as he could. Liliana quickly ripped off a good portion of her skirt, and wrapped up the wound as best she could. She knew it wouldn't do much good unless they got some medical aid fast, however. The pink cloth was already turning darker and wet as it soaked up the blood. Lloyd pressed his palms against Ryuuki's shoulders, trying to stop the blood flow even if by a little.

Then they heard yells and clashes of metal nearby.

"Damn it! Won't they give up already?" Lloyd muttered as he continued to apply pressure, ignoring the uncomfortable throbbing sensation on his own wounded chest. Meanwhile, it took Liliana a good deal of self-control to keep herself from breaking down and crying. Why did things turn out this way? They were just students! This was supposed to be just a school trip! She had planned on inviting the Ayanokouji siblings on a trip to Europe over the summer! Why did they have to go through this nightmare, getting cut up and bloodied all over?

The ruckus out in the roads settled down. Did something happen? Liliana carefully made her way to the edge of the forest, hiding herself in a thicket. She peeked out and saw that the ground was littered with even more Daein soldiers. Walking around were a small group of people in varying attires. She could make out three of them who were the closest to her. Two of them were riding horses and looked somewhat like one of Geoffrey's knights. The other one was a man wearing white robes and holding what looked like a staff. For a split second, her eyes met that of the robed man, and she instinctively backed away from the thickets. Unfortunately, her sudden movements caused a rustling noise.

"Wait! Ike, I just saw something move of the far side of that thicket!" she panicked as she heard the man's voice. She just gave away their position! Mentally berating herself she hurried over to the rest of the group. What were they going to do? She did not know if these people were friend of foe. With 2 people passed out, one of them heavily injured, and the conscious ones being injured and fatigued as well, they had no chance of escape either.

She prepared for the worst as the man she saw earlier emerge through the thickets.

"Oh, no…" he said quietly, looking at the seriously disheveled group.

"Did you find anything, Rhys?" a younger man with blue hair emerged behind the first, followed by an even younger looking male dressed in black robes.

"People, some of them look hurt," the man called Rhys quickly made his way to Elincia and Liliana, who were the closest to him.

"Leave them. We shouldn't get involved in matters that don't concern us," the black-haired boy said. Liliana was shocked. They didn't seem to be enemies, but how could this boy say something so cold-hearted?

"Oooh…" Elincia's groan caused Liliana to turn around.

"Thank goodness…. It looks like she's merely fainted," Rhys said as he quickly checked the fainted woman. He then immediately moved onto the two males, blanching at the state the unconscious one was in.

"How horrible, it's a wonder he's still breathing," he murmured as he brought his staff over Ryuuki. Lloyd gave a start, but seeing that Ryuuki's wounds were healing as the staff glowed, decided to trust this man and stay put.

"That should do it," the healer said as he turned to fix up the gash across Lloyd's chest.

"Right. We'd better take them with us for now and make sure they're all right. Can you give me a hand?" the blue haired youth turned to Lloyd.

"Uh, sure thing" he replied as the two of them pulled Ryuuki up and carefully moved him out into the roads. Rhys and Liliana followed, carrying Elincia.

"…I don't like this…" the black-haired boy muttered as he followed the rest.

* * *

Liliana gasped as she saw a familiar looking corpse lying on the road. It was the black armor knight who had thrown the javelin at Ryuuki. So that ruckus earlier must've been from the battle between his men and their rescuers.

"Something the matter?" Rhys asked, noticing her reaction.

"…He's the one who…" Liliana said quietly as she looked over at Ryuuki's direction.

Rhys took a look at the dead armor knight and Ryuuki.

"I see, that explains that shoulder wound," Rhys said, recalling the discarded javelin that had lain next to the injured boy.

"Ike, what happened? Who are they?" Liliana saw one of the riders she spotted earlier, a woman in white armor, ride up towards them.

"We found them in the woods, two of them are out of it," the one named Ike answered, nodding his head towards the unconscious young man he was supporting, then to the woman being carried by Rhys and Liliana.

The rider got off her horse and helped Rhys place the unconscious woman onto the mount. Oscar, the other rider in green armor, did likewise with Ryuuki.

"Can you two walk?" Ike turned to the other two strangers.

"Yeah, compared to what he went through, this is nothing," Lloyd replied, patting his now-healed chest.

"I'll be fine," Liliana answered, "thank you so much for your help."

"Well, it's not like we can just leave you there," Ike scratched his head.

"Oh yes, we can," Liliana and Lloyd jumped at the sudden voice behind them. A man with a long reddish ponytail and a large bow walked past them, a sullen look on his face.

"Don't mind Shinon, he's always like that," a man in thick blue armor said as he came by.

"More importantly, may I have the honor of hearing your name, lovely miss? While we're at it, how about a nice chat over dinner?" the man suddenly asked Liliana, bowing with a rather comical flourish.

'Huh, guess Felix isn't the only smooth-talker,' Lloyd mused as Liliana turned red, not knowing what to say.

"Oh, Kiara, you're back, did you see anything?" Titania's voice snapped Lloyd out of his musing. He whirled around to see a familiar-looking face nearby.

"Nothing," the newcomer replied curtly, her arms crossed in front of her. She was dressed in blue jeans, a red turtle-neck shirt, with an unbuttoned dark-blue polo-shirt over it. Her dirty blonde hair was kept out of her face with a maroon bandana, except for the bang that covered her left eye, and the back of her hair was tied up with a hair band. Her eyes still looked sharp and dangerous as ever. Completing the picture was a pair of steel gauntlets she was wearing that looked just out-of-place.

"Whoa, whoa! Aren't you Kiara Wolvine from school?" Lloyd burst out. So there WERE others who came to this place as well. That meant that Felix and Eudice must be around too!

Kiara looked at Lloyd for a bit, then said, "Who the hell are you?"

"Ah, of course you don't know. But never mind that. So, you ended up in this place too, huh?"

"Whatever," Kiara's tone suggested utter disinterest in continuing this conversation. Then she suddenly turned back towards Lloyd. "So, you're from our world too, then?"

"That's what I just asked you!" Lloyd exclaimed exasperatedly. He had heard rumors about this delinquent girl, but he hadn't expected her to be this difficult to talk with.

"Do you know a Ayanokouji Ryuuki?" Kiara asked bluntly, impatiently tapping a finger against her arm.

Lloyd stared at her with a blank look on his face. Don't tell me Ryuuki was friends with her like he turned out to be with Liliana? Moreover, she just said his last name perfectly! That was one of the few times he heard anyone else besides Ryuuki and his sister pronounce that last name like that.

"Uh, yeah, he's over there, knocked out," Lloyd stupidly pointed at the green knight's horse.

She stopped tapping her fingers. If Lloyd wasn't mistaken, she seemed to be rather surprised. Turning to the horse in question, she walked up and stared at the unconscious youth's face. She appeared to be debating something in her head, then backed off after apparently making up her mind.

'What was that all about?' Lloyd wondered as the group began to move on.


End file.
